If One Believed
by PianoxForte
Summary: Not your typical Bardock survives Planet Vegeta's destruction story.
1. Prologue

**If One Believed**

Prologue:

_Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe._

_ - Voltaire  
_

What happened on Planet Meat was haunting Bardock's innermost thoughts. To call the event devastating would be to make a massive understatement.

Bardock had just arrived back on Planet Vegeta, and was currently struggling to navigate through a set of hallways in a massive building complex. His destination, he didn't know. His thoughts were a maelstrom of confusion and rage.

_At first I was certain that I was going insane, but everything I see is becoming true. That planet that blew up in my dream, it was Vegeta. I know it. Kakarrot… he saw it too, somehow…_

_That Kanassan had really done what he'd told me he'd done. He'd somehow cursed me with this foresight. He had said that I was going to witness the destruction of my home planet, and my Saiyan brethren as he and his people had. That monster is going to blow up the whole planet! I know it now._

_Freeza, that double-crossing bastard! I need to stop him. He's afraid… he killed them because he's afraid. I'll give him something to be afraid of!_

His mind relentlessly wandered back to prior events of that day:

_I can't stop looking back on that God-forsaken planet, staring into Toma's suffering eyes. He's coughing up blood. It's spraying all over my armor. I can see a trail of it sliding down his cheek. I can feel it warm and wet on my own skin. God it's everywhere. This is a mess._

_I don't understand. I can't comprehend what's going on at all, but somehow, I've done this to them. I played a part in my own comrades' demise._

_He's too weak to hold himself up. I'm cradling his head in my hand. It's second nature at this point. He's more than just a teammate, he's my friend – bleeding out on me, and dying in my arms. I can't tell if it's because of his weakness or because of my anger, but we're both trembling like a leaf in a gust of wind._

"_Who did this to you?" I demand._

_I know it wasn't the inhabitants. My colleagues are good. They could more than handle planet Meat without any of my help._

"_F – Freeza"_

"_Freeza?" I can't believe what I'm hearing. "No," I mutter. It can't be true. I'm shaking my head in disbelief. "But we're his best team! We're low-levels and we get dirty work done that even the elites are afraid to touch! We work harder for him than anyone!"_

_Toma coughs. His eyes show empathy. He's a part of the team. He knows how this news makes me feel. "H – he's afraid," the words come out in hoarse whisper._

_It occurs to me that he's fading. All of my colleagues are dead on the ground. The stench of death is wafting up my nose. The truth is undeniable. They were slaughtered, and Toma wasn't going to make it._

_A sense of hopelessness makes my chest ache, and my head hangs in defeat. I grit my teeth and snarl, "Afraid of what?"_

_Toma smiles._

_I almost want to smack him upside the head and demand what's so God-damn funny._

"_You," he croaks with a soft laugh that morphs into a coughing fit of more blood.  
_

_Me, why me? I don't get it! I've been so loyal, doing everything he says. He should be recognizing me and my team, and our hard work!_

"_You're getting too strong. Y- you're a threat," Toma says. "He's afraid of what you might become."_

The memory promptly derailed as Bardock's exhausted limbs gave out under the burden of his slumped-over, heavy frame. His body toppled forward and smacked into floor.

_I'm so hot. My body's on fire, and the tile feels like ice. Damn it all! I'm exhausted. What can I do? Freeza's much stronger than I am as it is. What can I possible do?! No! I can't give up. I need to warn them. We need to stop this meaningless genocide!_

He struggled to get back onto his wavering limbs and continue on his course. He found a large group of Saiyans at the normal hang out.

_This is good,_ he assured himself. _They can spread the word._

He barged into the room and stumbled forward. He crashed into a table and knocked someone's cocktail to the floor. The glass shattered and splintered the cuts in skin. He could hear a mixture of laughter and confusion bombarding the room.

"Woah, Bardock what's wrong with you?"

"Moron!"

"Seriously, you need to go to the med bay and get healed!"

"Tch! Idiot!"

His mind was becoming foggy with fatigue. It took much more determination and effort to get himself onto his feet again this time around. The ruckus was almost too much. The room was swimming around him and he couldn't concentrate.

_What am I doing?_

His purpose wavered for a moment, but only for that solitary moment. The memory of the magnificent red planet exploding flashed through his mind. This time he could hear frantic voices, screams, babies crying. They all were going to die without their pride. Freeza was going to stomp on them in the same way that he had them stomp on others, and in the end, they were going to die just as pitiful and miserable and frightened as all of the weaker life-forms they had squelched in the name of their executioner.

"No!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, effectively hushing the entire room into stunned silence. He looked like a madman.

_I need to let them know. They have no idea…_

"Listen everybody," he said resolutely. He was trying to shout, but he was breathless and his voice was hoarse. It was drowned out by the laughter echoing off of the walls.

"It's Freeza!" he forced his voice to raise an octave and his lungs burned in an answer of protest. "He's coming for us!"

"What?"

"No way!"

"He aint got time for us peons."

"Maybe he's coming for _you_, ya' scared?"

"Ha! Yeah! What'd you do now, Bardock?"

_All of these voices. They're all so frustrating. I can't take it anymore!_

"Shut up!" he screamed, immediately tasting copper as blood filled his mouth. "He's coming for _us_! Me, you, all of us! He's afraid of us! We're becoming a threat to him! He's going to eliminate us like he did my team!"

"Bardock's great team finally falls, and now he's all upset!" a voice taunted.

"Yeah, welcome to reality, pal!" another added.

Bardock clenched his fists and growled frustratedly. "You fools! You're all dead!" he spat.

"Someone put that guy out of his misery!"

"Bardock's the _real_ fool!"

"What a dumbass!"

_This isn't getting me anywhere. Without solid evidence no hard-headed Saiyan's going to believe a word that I say._

Bardock retreated the room thoroughly frustrated.

_This is it… we're all going to die. I was arguing with dead men who aren't even worth saving. Damn it, Freeza, you've succeeded in creating a bunch of mindless goons. Saiyans don't even respect fellow Saiyans anymore!_

_If they can't see what's going on, if they won't stand up and fight, then so be it. I'm not going to stand around and wait to die like a coward! I'm coming for you, Freeza! I'm going to kill you in the name of my fallen companions or I'm going to die trying! Their deaths will come to mean something to you!_

With renewed adrenaline pumping through his system, Bardock jogged down the halls in search of an exit.

_He's coming, and when he gets here, I'm gonna face him head-on!_

The aches and pains were momentarily gone. The cloud of exhaustion had receded in the wake of Bardock's newfound resolve to earn his fallen friend's retribution.

"Hey!" a female voice suddenly shouted. "Bardock wait up!"

Bardock immediately skidded to a halt, and turned to face the woman.

_Wasn't she supposed to be on a mission?_

A flash of burgundy came into view.

_It's her… but, damn it all!_

The woman stopped a foot away from Bardock. She appeared absolutely livid as she jabbed her index finger into his chest plate.

"Wanna tell me what the hell that was all about?" she hissed.

Bardock stared at her searing dark-brown eyes dumbfoundedly.

"What?" he muttered.

"Bardock, don't play dumb! You looked like you escaped from the loony bin back there!"

Bardock furrowed his eyebrows together. "What, now _you _too?"

The woman frowned and withdrew her pointed finger. The inferno transformed into embers. "Y – you said your team is dead."

Bardock opened his mouth as if to speak, but he choked on his initial response. He was so wrapped up in everything, he'd forgotten…

The woman searched his face for an answer, her eyes found their way to his red bandana and lingered.

"Toma…" she muttered softly.

Bardock reached out his hand and rested it on her shoulder. "Catsia, I – I promise to avenge his death!"

She never withdrew her gaze. The shade of red reflected in her pupils. "How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'm going to confront Freeza. He's responsible for this! He sent Dodoria and some of his other goons to murder my friends in cold blood. I won't let him get away with this. He's coming as we speak," Bardock explained.

Catsia's attention was immediately drawn back to Bardock. She looked suddenly stunned. "What?" she shouted in disbelief. "No!"

Bardock withdrew his hand instantly, as if it had been burned, and he scowled at her. "What do you mean _no_? You don't believe me either do you? I thought better of you!"

Catsia clenched her fists and spoke through gritted teeth, "I didn't say that! Of course I believe you, knuckle-head, but you're an idiot if you think that you would even stand a chance against Freeza alone! That's suicide!"

Bardock laughed dryly. "Oh, and I suppose this is where you say you want to come along and fight with me? Well, forget it! You'll only get in my way!"

Catsia folded her arms and sneered. "I don't think you should go at all," she retorted.

"My mind is set. I'm no coward. Either he dies or I die, it's as simple as that. If I die, everyone…" he trailed off.

All was silent for moment. Both Saiyans bowed their heads, thinking nearly the same thing. Catsia rested her forehead on Bardock's chest.

"I don't want you to die," she whispered.

"Catsia…" Bardock murmured. "If you truly believe that I don't stand a chance. I want you to leave."

"Even if I wanted to, I can't. One of my team members died, and my new mission was canceled. I haven't been assigned a pod yet."

"You can take mine," Bardock replied. "I'm not going to be needing it anyway."

He rummaged around the top of his suit and procured a key. He placed it into her hand and curled her fingers around it.

He smirked, it looked somewhat forced. "You're making me late as usual. I don't have much time. See ya' later, Cat."

With that said, he turned to leave her.

Catsia stared at the key in her hand and bit her lip. She glanced back up at Bardock's retreating figure.

_No, _she thought, _I can't let you do this!_

Catsia faded out of view and reappeared behind Bardock with her arms raised and both fists clenched together into a tight ball of bone and flesh. Bardock realized her presence too late. Her conjoined fists swung down and slammed into the back of his skull, rendering him unconscious almost instantaneously.

"Woah, Catsia!" a female voice exclaimed.

"I didn't know you had it in you," a male voice added with a tone of amusement.

The voices startled her momentarily. She had surprise spectators. She spun to see who it was.

_Oh it's just those two…_

She raised an eyebrow and said, "What?" She waved her hand casually. "Move along, there's nothing to see here."

"You just walloped Bardock unconscious," the woman replied. "I'd hardly say there's nothing to see."

Catsia sighed. "Nothing anymore at any rate. Bardock's been acting like a moron. I just did everyone a favor and knocked some sense into him. You can thank me later."

The duo chuckled and passed her by.

"Bunch of simpletons…" she muttered as she heave-hoed Bardock onto her shoulder like it was nothing.

By pure chance, perhaps a pinch of luck, and maybe even a little bit of fate, there weren't any launches or returning flights scheduled for the rest of that day. Although Catsia received many odd stares and was the butt of many jokes while walking down the hallways lugging Bardock, she didn't encounter anyone on the launch pad.

She located Bardock's pod and opened the hatch. A waft of sweat and blood that had been baking inside the contraption immediately assaulted her nostrils. She waved her free hand in front of her face.

"P.U.!" she exclaimed.

Blood was still caked on the leather seat and many of the flight controls.

_Really? They still haven't cleaned this? Great… just my luck!_

She tossed Bardock inside, crammed herself in next to him, and closed the hatch.

_Oh God the smell is worse now. _

She stared hopelessly at the keys.

_I don't know where we should go…_ _Earth… that's where Kakarrot was sent. _

Catsia was about to program a route to Earth, but paused, and glanced at Bardock.

_No, you're in no condition to travel that far. We need somewhere where you can recuperate… somewhere uninhabited by Freeza's army, a place that wouldn't be a target._

"Computer, input new destination: Planet Piscis."

A ding sounded over the loud-speaker and a feminine, computerized voice announced, "New destination, Planet Piscis. Estimated arrival time: 2 days, 1 hour, and 8 minutes."

"Please stay seated. Commencing lift-off in 10 seconds."

Catsia rested her head on Bardock's shoulder. _You're gonna be so pissed at me when you wake up, but... you'll wake up.  
_

* * *

A/N: My OC Catsia is pronounced "Cah-shuh" and I derived it from Cassia a type of legume.


	2. Reluctant Acceptance

**If One Believed**

Chapter 1: Reluctant Acceptance

_*Ding* _"Arrival to destination: Planet Piscis, in 10 minutes. De-activating hibernation sequence. Implementing temperature stabilization… Temperature stabilized. Vital signs assessment: blood pressure - 120/74, pulse rate – 68, blood oxygen level – 99%. Vital signs acceptable."

The pod computer retracted all monitoring leads, clips, and straps from Bardock. A light blue mist was ejected into the air.

"Hibernation deactivation complete. Wake up, Bardock. Arrival to destination: Planet Piscis, in 5 minutes."

Catsia's eyelids fluttered open.

"Ugh," she groaned.

She rubbed her eyes, while yawning. She groggily glanced around her perimeter before stretching out her stiff arm and back muscles.

"I see you're still out of it," she muttered to Bardock's sleeping form.

She glanced out the solitary, red-tinted window. Planet Piscis was fast approaching. The planet was sky blue, but the tint of the windows made it appear violet.

"Arrival to destination: Planet Piscis, in 3 minutes."

"Yeah, yeah…" she murmured before yawning once again.

"Activating automatic landing sequence," the voice announced. "2 minutes."

…

"1 minute. Stay seated until vessel has landed."

The pod landed on a small island surrounded by a seemingly endless body of water. The land was the consistency of bedrock and the pod landed jarringly hard – creating just a small crater on the planet's surface.

"Planet Piscis," the computer declared. "Population 0, Average surface atmospheric pressure of 8,145.6 millibars. Average atmospheric oxygen level: 17%. Current temperature: 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Status: habitable. Additional information available upon request."

With the planetary introduction complete, the hatch automatically opened up to reveal the surrounding landscape. Catsia climbed out and stretched her legs. The gravity felt noticeably lighter than that of Planet Vegeta, and the air was more crisp and clean.

She surveyed her perimeter. She was standing on a patch of dirt and rock, engulfed by the body of water surrounding it. She clicked a button on her scouter and yellow numbers began to flash on the small green screen.

_Hmm… just as I thought, we're all alone. None of Freeza's troops will be bothering us._

She felt like giving herself a pat on the back for a job well done, though it occurred to her that Bardock might not see eye to eye with her on that once he was awake. Speaking of which, she momentarily peeked her head back inside the pod where Bardock still lay unconscious.

_I can't _believe_ that landing didn't wake you up! You're gonna suffocate in this stuffy pod though._

She dragged him outside onto the dirt. She sat down next to him and shielded her eyes with her hand as she gazed at the planet's solitary sun. Her stomach grumbled.

_I'm starving._

She went over to the shoreline and splashed her face with the water. She cupped her hands and dipped them into the crystal-clear liquid. She placed them up to her lips and guzzled down as much as she could before it slipped through her fingers. The water tasted fresh and icy cold. It woke her up instantly.

_I better catch us some food… Bardock's always a little more rational when his stomach isn't growling._

Catsia hastily kicked off her black boots; she pulled off a pair of maroon armbands, and slipped her black and yellow armor off over her head, leaving only a maroon spandex-like one-piece underneath.

_I bet the fish here are huge!_ she thought, licking her lips in anticipation. She made a swan dive into the water and disappeared from sight.

* * *

In the time lapse between Catsia's departure, and subsequent return, Bardock woke up. Needless to say, he was startled by the unfamiliar landscape, and the fact that he had no idea what was going on. He rubbed the back of his head, and could feel a sore and still prominent bump on his scalp.

_Damn… my head… it's pounding._

He noted that he was next to his pod on a desolate island, seemingly in the middle of nowhere with nobody around to be seen. He placed his hand on the side of his face near his temple – touching the phantom of his scouter. It was like missing a limb.

_I can't even tell if anyone's nearby! I'm as good as blind without my scouter._

"Computer, where am I?" he asked.

"Your current location is: Planet Piscis," the computer responded.

"Why the hell am I here? What happened?" he muttered.

_Catsia's face flashes before his mind's eye. She's visibly upset – much more so than he's seen her in a long time._

"_Toma…" she says, her voice sounds so hopeless._

_Without warning, all of the recent events come rushing into his mind._

_His team dies at the hands of Freeza's men._

_He tries to warn his Saiyan brothers; they won't listen._

_I have to stop this. I have to stop this! Freeza must pay!_

Bardock curled up into a fetal position with his eyes clenched shut. His fists tugged at his ebony hair.

_No, no, no…_

"_Bardock I don't want you to die…" her voice echoes._

_He has to pay!_

_She doesn't believe in me. What if I can't do it? She can't die too!_

_She'll be safe._

_What is this sharp pain… in the back of my head? Catsia?_

_Blackness. Where is everything?_

Bardock's eyelids popped wide open. His chest rose and fell sharply. His face bore a look of utter disbelief.

"Catsia… she knocked me out cold, and now I'm here? _Why_?"

The uncertainty and bewilderment fled his scrutiny for the time being as a more significant predicament stormed into existence.

"Freeza!" Bardock shouted. "I'm running out time! He's going to succeed! He's going to kill them all!"

Bardock hopped up into a mad-dash for his space pod. He made it about half-way before a strong vision knocked him to the ground.

_Wake up, Kakarrot. Exterminate Planet Earth's inhabitants in the name of Lord Freeza. Wake up, Kakarrot. Exterminate Planet Earth's inhabitants in the name of Lord Freeza. Wake up, Kakarrot. Exterminate Planet Earth's inhabitants in the name of Lord Freeza. Wake up, Kakarrot. Exterminate Planet Earth's inhabitants in the name of Lord Freeza._

_It went on and on like a skipping scratched record for what felt like an eternity._

_Make it stop! You're going to drive me insane! You're going to drive my son insane!_

_Wake up, Kakarrot. Exterminate..._

_SHUT UP!_

"_WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH!"_

_Those strong lungs…that's Kakarrot._

_I can see him. He's on Earth in his pod. It's happening again, isn't it? This is a vision of the future._

"_WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH!"_

_The orders of the Planet Trade Organization drone on relentlessly, but now it's fading to background noise. A much more prominent sound of crunching can be heard. It's growing louder. It sounds like twigs snapping under a heavy stride. An old humanoid creature can be seen peeking in on the wailing Saiyan infant._

_The orders stop._

_Who is this?_

"_What's this? A baby," the old man mutters._

_He gently lifts Kakarrot up by his armpits. Well hello there," the old man greets. "And who might you be?"_

_Kakarrot stops crying, and instead he stares at the old man brimming with childish curiosity. His tail drops._

_The old man glances at the furry appendage with mild surprise. "A tail?" he mutters. "Well, isn't that unique," he adds with a genuine, grandfatherly smile._

"_My name is, Gohan. I don't suppose you can tell me yours?" he playfully asks._

_Kakarrot cocks his head innocently._

"_How about I call you… Goku?" the old man suggests._

_Kakarrot giggles. It's contagious, and the old man laughs with the happy baby._

"_You like that, don't you? Well, it's settled then. Your name will be Goku."_

_The vision begins to fade._

_What is this… pressure on my arm?_

"Bardock! Bardock, are you alright?"

Bardock blinked back to reality, and an intense light immediately assaulted his eyes. He squinted at a shadowy figure in the middle of the aura of light. He could kind of make out Catsia's face with a backdrop of the bright sun glistening in her long, wet hair. Water was dripping on his face and chest. She was nudging his arm.

"C – Catsia?" he murmured.

Catsia exhaled a sigh of relief. "Oh, you're okay!"

She lent him a hand to pull his exhausted body into a sitting position.

Catsia laughed. "I was worried. I didn't leave you face-planted on the ground like that! I thought something might seriously be wrong for a moment there!"

Bardock continued to stare at her skeptically. "Are you real?"

Catsia's eyebrows puckered together. She was puzzled. "As far as I can tell. You should take it easy… you've been out for awhile."

_Freeza! _he suddenly thought.

Immediately ignoring Catsia's suggestion, Bardock jumped to his feet and made for the pod.

Catsia frowned and crossed her arms. "Are you deaf? Sit down!"

Bardock momentarily paused his stride. "I don't have time for you right now. Don't even _think_ about blindsiding me again – it's not going to work!"

"Wait!" she continued undaunted, following him.

"No! You've already wasted enough time! It might be too late for me to make a difference!" Bardock argued.

"But –" she started, reaching out her arm to his retreating figure, "it's gone…" she said softly, dropping it back down to her side and bowing her head.

Bardock froze as still as a statue. "What did you just say?" he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Planet Vegeta. Before I went into hibernation… I saw Freeza's gargantuan space ship hovering just beyond Vegeta's atmosphere. It's too late."

Bardock spun around and stomped up to Catsia, halting with his face a mere inch from her own. His eyes were seething with rage. "You mean to say Freeza attacked our home world, and you abandoned it with nobody that knew the wiser?! I was going to stop him, and you knocked me out cold and took me with you. He's killed everyone?!"

Catsia steadily held his gaze. "Yes, he has undoubtedly destroyed Vegeta and everyone on it – just like you told me. Go ahead and say what you're thinking, Bardock… everyone died pathetically and I'm to blame. You think I'm a coward because I ran away.

"Look, I don't know how you knew this was going to happen. I don't even care… Somehow, somewhere along the line, you convinced yourself that it was your destiny to prevent this tragedy from happening, and I didn't have time to think… I just knew that I had to stop you, because you're wrong. I made you my accomplice without your permission, and now your reputation is tarnished. I understand if you can't forgive me for this, but I won't deny that even if you do hate me for it, I don't regret my actions one bit."

Bardock narrowed his eyes. "I should have known better than to trust scum like you. You're worse than your father!"

Catsia flinched.

"I should kill you for what you've done!" he spat.

"You should. That would be the admirable thing to do," she calmly replied. "Go ahead. I won't stop you."

Bardock searched her eyes for a good minute. He growled and kicked a plume of dirt up with his boot. His fists shook at his sides, but he didn't make a move against her.

"You can't do it, can you?" Catsia prodded. "Then you're a coward too! You can't even dispose of someone who's clearly tainted your reputation. You wanna know what I truly think, why I did it?"

Bardock didn't answer, but he refused to tear away his steely gaze.

Catsia countered his gaze with a look of resolve. "You know I was raised by a man with zero principles. His pride was nonexistent. Because of him and his sick, selfish actions, I never had a clean slate. I've always been an embarrassment – a pariah. Nobody even gives me the time of day… except you and Toma.

"When you said Freeza was gonna kill us all, and I saw all of our fellow warriors treat you like _dirt_… I thought… these guys don't deserve to live – good riddance. But you… you were gonna sacrifice yourself to restore their pride regardless of how they treated you. You knew you couldn't win, but if you renounced our loyalty to Freeza, if you stood up against him – well then maybe the Saiyan race could hold onto some semblance of respect in death…"

"I'll admit I didn't owe those bastards anything, but you prevented me from avenging my comrades," Bardock replied icily.

"No!" Catsia argued. "Don't you see? As it stands, you can't defeat Freeza! You were so enraged that it blinded you of any reason! It was a noble thought. You were going to die for them, but you weren't going to gain them the retribution that they deserve!"

"So, what? I should just run away from my problems, like you?" he snarled.

Catsia sighed and ran her fingers through her coarse, burgundy hair. "Listen: I told you that I believed in you – I do! I know you can beat Freeza, but not yet. I'm not scared, and I'm no coward. I live by my own sense of pride. I don't care what any other Saiyan thinks of me! Mark my words, I _will_ help you avenge them – I _promise_. I just… want you to think rationally about it – that's all."

Bardock sat down with his legs crossed and exhaled the breath of air he'd been holding in. Catsia sat down beside him and wrapped her arms around bent legs and drew them close. She rested her chin in the nook between the precipices of each knee.

"And I'm selfish because I don't want to lose you too," she whispered.

"I guess that makes two of us," Bardock admitted. "I told you to escape, and I was okay with it until you spirited me away with you… I guess that makes me a hypocrite."

"Ha! It does," Catsia said with a smile. "I wish I'd recorded you admitting that on my scouter."

Bardock side-glanced at Catsia. "To tell you the truth, I don't give a flying fuck about the lives of those Saiyans Freeza killed anymore than I do the people I've killed, but it ticks me off that he just took a giant dump on our entire race. He made a _mockery_ of us!"

"We'll get 'im for it," she replied, winking at him and placing her hand in his.

Bardock squeezed her hand in return, and smirked, "We'll make him suffer for what he did!"

"Damn right we will!" she exclaimed.

Her look of determination and excitement dropped and was momentarily replaced by a frown. "Bardock, I'm sorry about your teammates, and… your best friend."

He wrapped his arm around her waist and she leaned into him. "I'm sorry about your brother." he replied.

* * *

A/N: I feel I need to clear the air about something before it gets brought up: this is absolutely _not_ going to be a Bardock redemption fic. You'll see what I mean by that in later chapters. I must have changed the dialogue in this chapter like 20 times before posting it... I've never really written a fic where an OC plays a major part so this is kind of a challenge for me. Some feedback would be nice, not gonna lie, it drastically improves my update timing too! ;) Thanks to my 3 reviewers! :)

Jonathan: I left some heavy hints as to who Catsia really is in this chapter, but you'll for sure know in the next.


	3. Oil and Vinegar

**If One Believed**

Chapter 2: Oil and Vinegar

The solitary sun of Planet Piscis began to peak over the horizon. Glimmers of light reflected on the water. Both exhausted warriors lay sprawled together in the dirt on the lone island next to a large, devoured fish-carcass. The female warrior slept like a log, while Bardock tossed and turned uneasily in his sleep.

…

_A female, humanoid creature clambers out of a smoking vehicle that lay toppled on its side. Her aqua-blue hair stands out like a sore thumb. On her way out, her shoe-lace gets caught in the door-frame and she goes tumbling awkwardly to the ground._

"_Oof!"_

_A very young Kakarrot stands opposite her in a defensive stance. A rather large dead fish is lying behind him. He has a red stick in his hand, and he's pointing it at the girl as if threatening to prod her with it._

"_Witch!" Kakarrot shouts._

_She groans, rubbing the newly acquired bump on the top of her head._

"_How rude!" she grumbles._

"_Don't get any funny ideas!" Kakarrot says. "I won't be tricked by your magic, and your monster's not going to get my fish!"_

"_Kid, I'm not a witch! I'm a normal human being!" she says as she stands up, brushing off dirt from her pink dress._

"_If you're not a witch, then why are you using magic?!" he argues._

"_Ugh! I'm not using magic, and that's not a monster!" she says, pointing to the automobile. "It's called a car! Tech-nol-o-gy! You know… it has an engine and runs on gas…?"_

_The girl's eyes follow the boy as he cautiously approaches her, circling her, examining her, sniffing her scent. Something's wrong, there's no tail. He prods the backside of her skirt with his stick – flipping it up._

_The girl immediately displays a look of revulsion and hops forward. "Hey kid! Just what do you think you're doing?! That's no way to treat a lady!"_

"_I was just looking for your tail," the boy replies innocently._

_The girl's eyes widen with shock for a moment. "Tail?"_

"_Oh, don't worry!" the boy quickly amends. "Maybe yours just hasn't grown yet."_

_The girl covers her mouth and snickers._

"_So you're a girl? Grandpa told me about girls," he says with wonder._

_The girl's jaw drops. "Y – you mean you've never seen a girl before?"_

_Kakarrot shakes his head. "Nuh-ah!"_

_The girl sighs. "You've got to be kidding me," she says, then mutters under her breath, "what a country bumpkin!"_

"_What's your name?" he asks._

_The girl grins. "My name's Bulma."_

_Kakarrot giggles. "That's a funny name!"_

_The girl's face turns beet red, and she clenches her fists at her sides. "Yeah, well, then what's yours, Mr. Cool?"_

_The boy beams. "My name's Goku!"_

_The girl clutches her sides and breaks out laughing. "Goku! Look who's talking now, hot-shot."_

_Kakarrot frowns. "I like it…"_

_Goku?_

…

Bardock groaned and rubbed his temples. It was bright outside. He could smell fish cooking. He blinked languidly at Catsia. She had a chunk of fish flesh skewered on a large piece of bone, and she was cooking it with a small amount of ki.

Bardock began pulling his suit and armor on. He noticed Catsia was staring at him.

He quirked an eyebrow. "What?"

"Who's Goku?" she asked curiously, taking a bite out of her catch.

Bardock frowned. "How… do you know that name?"

"You were just muttering in your sleep. Seems like you were dreaming about someone named Goku," she said matter-of-factly.

Bardock walked over and sat down next to Catsia. She handed him a slab of cooked meat.

"I might as well tell you so you don't nag it out of me," he grumbled.

Catsia rolled her eyes. "Get on with it already."

"It all started on Planet Kanassa…" he began.

10 minutes or so later…

"So… let me get this straight," Catsia muttered, tapping her chin with her index finger. "You were given clairvoyant powers by a fish- face alien, and you had all of these visions about Planet Vegeta being destroyed, and now you're having visions of someone named Goku?"

"If you think I'm crazy," Bardock said pointedly, "join the club."

"Well, it's certainly a lot to take in," Catsia admitted earnestly, "but crazy people don't usually believe that they're crazy. I don't think you're crazy," she concluded with a grin.

Bardock laughed dryly. "That's some solid reasoning," he said sarcastically. "Well, I wish I could say the same. I can't even tell if I'm dreaming or having a vision half the time, and who's to say that the visions will even come true?!"

"I guess time will tell," Catsia replied. "Do you want to talk about your visions?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Fine…" Catsia grumbled.

Silence ensued for a few minutes. Bardock ate and stared at Catsia as she went about her business, eating, tidying up, stretching, and letting off some steam by punching and kicking at an invisible enemy… Finally, a pesky thought forced him to speak up:

"It's not like you to drink," he said.

Catsia froze with her leg up in the air. "What?" she asked.

"The other day… you were in that bar. You don't hang out it bars," he continued.

Catsia's foot slowly lowered back down to the ground, and she turned to face him. She blew some irritating bangs out of her line of sight and said, "So? I was having a bad day."

"Because your first assignment in what – half a year – was cancled?" he ventured to guess.

For a moment, Catsia seemed genuinely surprised that he'd come to that conclusion. "No, I was upset because Kakarrot was sent on his very first mission – you know, our son, the one you never even took the time to look at," she replied icily.

Bardock's stomach turned. _Shit! Walked right into that one…_

"I _saw_ him," he defended.

Catsia quirked an eyebrow. "Really? Now I _don't_ believe you."

"Fine," Bardock retorted, "don't."

"Can you blame me?" she asked. "I haven't seen you in a couple months, Bardock. You always managed to keep yourself busy with missions and training. It was like you'd dropped off the face of Vegeta."

_Damn it! I had to open my big mouth… _Bardock thought._ Why didn't I see this coming…? Instead I see stupid shit about blue-haired alien girls… Useless psychic powers!_

"I was busy!" he spat.

"You must really think I'm stupid! You _made _yourself busy the second you found out I was pregnant! What did you think? If you detached yourself it would make it less difficult? Maybe this time if your kid dies it won't hurt because you never bonded with it? Well, I can't choose that luxury!"

"Shut up!" Bardock snapped, clenching his hair in his fists. "J – just don't bring that up! I can't handle it right now."

Catsia slumped to the ground. "Sorry," she muttered. "I don't like thinking about it either, but it doesn't change the fact that Kakarrot deserved better. I can handle being alone, but he shouldn't have to… same goes for Raditz. You're their father – start acting like it."

Bardock didn't reply. He glared at the dirt.

"I want them back," she said softly.

"Oh, no! No… no… no! Don't even start thinking like that!" Bardock began to argue. "They're only going to get in the way. We're going after _Freeza_… they're better off on their own then with us."

"That's not how I see it," she replied.

"Well then, I guess we don't agree, surprise, surprise!" Bardock retorted sarcastically.

Catsia ignored Bardock's jab. "The way I see it, either they're both gonna be Freeza's slaves, or he's going to kill them – being that he's afraid of you and they're your children – my bet's on the latter."

Catsia clenched her fists and stood up decisively. "I for one am not going to let that happen!"

All was silent.

Catsia lost some of her steam and turned to face Bardock. "Bardock why are you –"

Catsia lost her train of thought when she noticed that Bardock was just sitting there, entirely spaced out.

"Bardock?" she muttered.

She kneeled down in front of him and waved a hand in front of his unresponsive eyes. "Hello… Planet Vegeta to Bardock, do you read me?"

She blew air in his face, and nothing happened – not even a twitch.

"Must be another vision," she concluded.

She sat cross-legged and patiently watched for any sign of his returning to reality. _You know, if I wasn't so nice, I would totally screw around with you right now… hehe…_

...

_What is this place? Where am I?_

_The atmosphere feels familiar. The sky is an inviting shade of blue. _

_This is… another vision?_

_The landscape is vastly different then the last. It is barren – though not entirely lifeless. For the most part, it is a flat land covered in a grass that is tinged yellow-green with dormancy._

_There is a green alien standing in a slightly crouched position. His face yields a look of complete concentration. He is holding his index and middle finger up to his temple. A bright, iridescent, blue ki is charging at his fingertips._

_Opposite the green alien, stand two men. The smaller of the two has the larger immobilized in a full-nelson._

_That looks like… no it can't be!_

"_Kakarrot!" the larger man shouts, "let go! You fool! Can't you see? If you hold me and he hits us with that blast, you'll die too!"_

_Kakarrot's face is screwed up in intense pain. His clothing is tattered, and by the look of it, many of his bones are broken._

"_I don't care!" he rasps. His teeth clench tightly together. "It's the only way to stop you!"_

_Raditz thrashes about wildly. The full significance of the situation is realized. He looks like an ensnared animal caught in the gaze of its hunter. _

"_But I'm your blood, Kakarrot! You would kill your own brother?" he beseeches desperately._

_Kakarrot hacks up blood and moans in pain. His body clearly can't handle much more. _

"_Piccolo! Hurry up!" he cries out._

_The green man – Piccolo – smirks triumphantly. "Prepare yourself, Goku!" he announces._

"_DO IT!" Kakarrot screams._

"_Makankosappo!" Piccolo yells, thrusting out his arm at the sons of Bardock._

_A blue and yellow lightning-like beam streaks through the air in a spiral of destruction. It collides with Raditz first, tearing through his flesh and bone in an instant. His eyes bug out and he shrieks at the top of his lungs._

_Next the beam reaches the younger brother. It loses some momentum and has a more difficult time slicing through its next victim. Kakarrot clenches his brother more tightly and howls in pain. Raditz's blood squirts like a geyser all over his sibling. Kakarrot's fingers slip slightly, he loses his grip and falls backward as the energy forces its way out the backside of his chest wall._

_Blood is everywhere – spraying in the air like mist and rain, dribbling down the brothers' noses and mouths. When the bodies hit the floor, Raditz's face is contorted with hatred and pain, while Kakarrot is smiling…_

…

Bardock came to with a violent jerk that nearly caused him to headbutt Catsia in the face. Unbeknownst to him, he'd been holding his breath for quite some time. As a result, he inhaled a gasp of air so forcefully that he choked on his own saliva. His mate could do nothing but stare at him in shock.

It took a few moments for Bardock to catch his breath, and when he did, he still felt as if he'd been plunged underwater. Reality was a blur. He could see, but the memory of his sons' punctured bodies flying through the air would not leave his eyes. He could hear, but it was as if the sound waves grew long and distorted before reaching his ears. Catsia was speaking to him, but her words were a muddled mess of nonsense in the backdrop of his screaming progeny.

In his short life, Bardock had seen more carnage than most, but no-matter how much he'd been exposed to – nothing could prepare him for what he had just seen: his children fighting to the death.

Catsia shook his shoulder aggressively. "Bardock! What's wrong with you? Snap out of it, would you!" She hauled back and slapped him across the face.

Bardock blinked at his mate and traced the stinging flesh of his cheek. His eyebrows puckered together in confusion. "They're kin, _what_ could possibly cause him to kill his brother in cold blood?"

Catsia cocked her head in bewilderment. "What are you talking about?"

Bardock shifted his attention to his mate. "We're getting our son," he said resolutely.

Catsia crossed her arms. "Well of course we are! We can leave for Earth as soon as you feel well enough…"

"No!" Bardock interjected. "We get Raditz first."

* * *

A/N: I feel like I was a little too vague in my prior A/N when I said this isn't going to be a Bardock redemption fic. What I mean to say is that he is never going to have an "Ah...!" moment where he suddenly feels the need to repent for all of his misdeeds. He will never be the good guy that wants to save people he doesn't know and doesn't care about. I just don't think that's him – it's Goku. If I made him into that, then I just feel like he'd be totally OOC. That's not to say he won't have massive character development throughout the story. Not to mention, I think Bardock has a lot of likeable qualities – which is why I want to write a story about him! :)

Thanks to those who reviewed, favorited, and followed my story! :)


	4. We Make Our Move

**If One Believed**

Chapter 3: We Make Our Move

...

_The sky is a cloudless bright yellow. A fiery orange sun is beating down upon a landlocked city in a desert. Objects appear warped by the heat. Imaginary puddles adorn the streets. Human-like people with dark skin and ebony hair bustle about their daily business – bathing blissfully in the sun's rays. They glow with energy from it. They have a third eye situated in their forehead. The iris is the same magnificent shade of their sun. Every so-often, they glance up at their source of energy and life._

_A bell gongs, and suddenly the people of this mysterious yellow planet run to various statues that line the streets in a pandemonium of confusion and fear. The statues are carvings of creatures much like them dressed in ornamental garb. They are all alike. Every statue has three eyes with only the central eye open. Its pupil is a glittering gold-like jewel._

_The bell rings out again. Horns are blown. The people bow down to the statues, and a murmuring whisper of prayers fills the streets. A child looks up from her prayers and gazes at the sun with a frightened expression._

_A black shadow eats away at the edges of the celestial body. It becomes larger, engulfing half of it, then three-quarters, until finally the entire sun is blocked from sight. Total darkness falls upon the land. The girl's third eye closes of its own accord. Everyone's vibrant energy is suddenly drained. Elderly people fall unconscious – some dead. The child frantically searches for her lost sun, but it is gone. It won't reappear in her lifetime._

_Suddenly, a white light shoots up into the sky. It hovers in the upper atmosphere like a brilliant star the likes of which these people have never witnessed. They have never seen the night. The girl smiles at the beautiful display of light. Hope wells up inside of her._

_Moments later, a brown behemoth of a creature sprouts up out of nowhere, followed by two more. Its red eyes glow in the dark. Its canines gleam bright white and sharp. It lets out an eardrum-splitting battle cry and it smashes its enormous fist through a towering building. The building comes crashing down. The girl's eyes widen. It's coming right at her. It smashes through one of the holy statues, and the statue's debris buries her alive._

…

Bardock's eyes fluttered open. His mate was supporting him on her shoulder.

"Another vision," she simply said, as he regained his composure.

"Mhm," he hummed, nodding his head slightly.

Five months had passed since the duo left the protection of Planet Piscis behind in search of their eldest son. The visions were nearly a daily regimen. What at first came to Bardock as a shock was now nothing but the background noise of his daily life. The visions didn't surprise him anymore. He'd come to accept his extrasensory powers as the norm. If anything, they could be somewhat bothersome – especially when he was in the midst of a fight.

_Need to control this shit…_ he'd remind himself. Then he would continue on with his day, only to forget about it until the next incident. He had more important things to do.

"This one…" Bardock muttered, as he digested what he had just witnessed, "might _actually_ be of some use to us."

Catsia didn't appear all that interested. "That's what you said about the last one, and I nearly got killed for nothing."

Bardock laughed, and Catsia sent him a nasty scowl.

"No seriously," Bardock continued undaunted, "do you remember the name of the planet with those people that worship their sun?"

Catsia tapped her chin thoughtfully. "There's a lot of those."

"No," Bardock replied, shaking his head. "This one's different. The people gain power from their sun like we gain power from the moon. They're dangerous. Dangerous enough for Freeza to avoid their planet."

"Ah yeah, the people that can transform into the fire phoenix, right?" she ventured to guess.

Bardock snapped his finger and thumb. "Yes! What's it called?"

Catsia frowned slightly. "I – I think it was something like… planet Sun."

Bardock raised an eyebrow irreverently. "Really, planet _Sun_? Did you make that up all by yourself?"

Catsia ignored him. "No…" she murmured. "Something like it… like… Sol… Solaris… Solera? Solera! It was planet Solera!"

Bardock smirked. "I knew you were good for _something_."

Catsia crossed her arms. "Keep it up, and the next time you conk out in the middle of a fight, I might just be too conveniently busy to help."

Bardock chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. He turned on the space pod computer.

"Computer, is there anything in the database about a planet Solera?" he asked.

"Yes," the feminine robotic voice responded. "Planet Solera is located in sector 6 of the northern galaxy. Its most current recorded population is 10,872,224,076. The planet is ha –"

"Enough," Bardock interjected. "Does planet Solera have a moon?"

"Planet Solera does not have a moon."

Bardock grinned slightly. "What about a sun, does it have a sun?"

"Planet Solera has one sun."

"How often is there a solar eclipse?"

"The sun of Planet Solera is eclipsed every 10,000,000 years for a period of 24 hours," the computer replied.

"And when is the next eclipse going to happen?"

"The next eclipse is predicted to happen in 340 days."

Bardock shot his mate a cocky smirk.

Catsia appeared genuinely surprised. "You don't think… Freeza's finally gonna make his move on that planet, do you?"

"I know he is," Bardock replied smugly.

It suddenly looked as if a light bulb had turned on over Catsia's head. "That was your vision!" she exclaimed. "You saw planet Solera's sun eclipsed!"

Bardock clapped his hands. "Bingo!"

"Okay," Catsia muttered to herself. "But that doesn't explain how that information can help us… surely he wouldn't send his only Saiyans to take them out…"

Bardock cocked his head. "And why not?"

"It just doesn't make any sense," Catsia stated matter-of-factually. "It doesn't have a moon. They couldn't wipe the population out in a 24 hour span without their Oozaru transformation."

Bardock lifted his index finger and said, "Ah, but you're forgetting something. That new technique we'd all been taught while you were decommissioned: the artificial moon beam."

Catsia gasped. "Of course!"

Bardock smirked. "Hey computer, give me an estimated arrival time to planet Solera if we departed in 5 minutes."

"Estimated arrival time of 342 days, four hours, and two minutes," the computer responded.

Bardock felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. His smirk transformed into a scowl. "Shit!" he hissed.

"We're gonna barely miss them," Catsia muttered.

"It'll only take them 24 hours; they'll undoubtedly leave the planet a day before we would even arrive. Damn it all! Every time!" Bardock growled, sinking to the ground and frustratedly smacking his clenched fists into the earth.

Catsia tapped her chin thoughtfully, and glanced up at the pod. "Computer, what is the closest planet owned by the Trade Organization to planet Solera?"

"Freeza Planet 76."

"How long would it take to journey to it from planet Solera?" Catsia continued.

"What are you – " Bardock began.

Catsia slapped her hand over his mouth . "Shhh!"

Bardock scowled at her.

"Two days, one hour, and 15 minutes," the machine answered in monotone.

Bardock seemed to get the gist. His glowering look faltered. Catsia noticed and removed her hand. She crossed both index and middle fingers together for added luck and asked, "How long would it take to travel from this planet to Freeza Planet 76 if we departed in five minutes?"

"343 days, six hours, and 36 minutes."

They both did the math quickly in their heads. Bardock's jaw dropped slightly agape in astonishment. _Of course! They're bound to make a pit-stop at the nearest Planet Trade operation after their mission. We'll arrive just in time to cross paths with Raditz if he is to be assigned to that mission! This is a perfect opportunity. Why the hell didn't I think of that?_

It was Catsia's turn to smirk triumphantly. "Good for _something_, huh?" she teased.

Bardock chuckled. "We better get a move on. He idly scratched at his scalp. "But…" he muttered. "We're gonna have to ditch our pod. It's Saiyan issued. I don't think that'll fly with Freeza's men when we arrive. They'll catch it on their radar."

Catsia nodded her head in agreement. "Yep. We might even get shot out of the sky before we land. What about those two goons we killed earlier today? They purged this planet, so they're without-a-doubt Freeza's men. They didn't have jack as far as inside information goes, so they probably weren't of any importance. We can use theirs and it won't be suspicious."

"I was thinking the same thing. Heh, where they're going they won't be needing them anymore," Bardock replied.

* * *

_343 Days Later_

A pair of spherical spaceships rocketed through the atmosphere of a small purplish-colored planet. The occupants were groggily waking up from a long cryostasis-induced slumber when the pods came to a sudden, jarring halt on a launch pad at the planet's surface. The hatches opened up in near synchronization.

Catsia placed her hand on the outside edge of her pod for support and stumbled out of the vehicle. Bardock soon followed suit. Catsia rubbed her temples and groaned.

"I'll never get used to hibernation," she muttered, surveying her perimeter with a somewhat disoriented gaze. She yawned idly.

"Snap out of it," Bardock commanded, rushing toward the entrance of a nearby building. "No time for walking around in a stupor! We're on a mission, remember?"

Catsia tossed her head around and stretched to wake herself up. "Right. So what's the plan?"

Bardock paused momentarily and raised an eyebrow at her. "Barge in and retrieve our brat, what else? If we meet any resistance, kill it. How's that sound?"

Catsia shrugged her shoulders. "Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me."

As if on cue, one of Freeza soldier's came rushing out of the building shouting, "Halt! Get on your knees! Drop your weapons, and identify yourselves!"

Bardock sighed. "It appears our arrival hasn't gone unnoticed." _Still, just a foot soldier._

Catsia's form phased into view in front of the soldier. She smashed her flexed elbow into the lizard-like creature's face. The creature's scouter shattered upon impact and her elbow dug into its eye socket. The soldier felt flat on its back, dead. Meanwhile, Catsia gracefully tumbled forward into a handstand and then flipped into an upright position.

Bardock pinched the bridge of his nose and grumbled, "Damn it, Catsia."

Catsia cocked her head innocently. "What?"

"Stop destroying scouters! I still need one!" he snapped.

Catsia couldn't withhold her laugh of amusement. "Aye aye, Captain!" she said, stepping into the building through an automated dual-door entrance. More soldiers of all different colors and races rushed at her the instant she entered the building.

She crossed her arms and frowned. "More grunts? This isn't going to be _any _fun!" she whined.

A blue muscular alien with a horn jutting out of his forehead dove at her, and she swiftly dodged his fist with ease. She shot out her hand and grabbed the soldier's wrist. She twisted his arm counterclockwise, and a sickening snapping sound issued forth, followed by a scream.

"Hey babe, let's make this more interesting!" she called out.

Bardock twisted a soldier's neck and apathetically dropped the lifeless corpse. "What?"

Catsia lit up a small sphere of green ki at the tip of her index finger and shot it through the horned soldier's chest, presumably in the space his heart occupied. She hit the bull's-eye, and he fell to a heap on the ground.

Catsia grinned and said, "Let's play a game: who can kill more of Freeza's filthy pawns."

She kicked her leg out and crushed a soldier's air-pipe with the sole of her boot. "That's three for three!" she announced with a grin. "I'm winning, slowpoke!"

Bardock chuckled. "Playing with your prey? You haven't changed at all, Cat!"

Catsia wiped a spatter of blood off of her cheek with her forearm, only to smear it. She snickered. "You know you _love_ it!" she responded with a coquettish smile.

* * *

A/N: Goku gets his playful nature from his mother… only it's not quite the same. ;) Should I include the other 'Saiyan survivors': Broly, Turles... etc?

_Tellemicus Sundance:_ Thank you for the review! :) I'll consider the Bulma and Goku thing. It would be pretty far off at this point. I am a fan of Goku x Bulma, but I also don't have anything against ChiChi. As of now, I haven't planned those characters' future relationships. You were right about the time skips. There'll be some more in future chapters. As for Catsia's power level, it's significantly less than Bardock's, though I wouldn't consider her weak at all. Bardock was supposedly around 10,000 at the end of his movie, so I would say Catsia is about 2,000 at that time. Bardock's power level jumped really high within a short period because of his reckless fighting, so I don't think I would be stretching it too far to say that he and Catsia were once on par with each other not too long ago.

_super mystic gohan: _Thanks for reviewing! I agree with you. Anyone's version of Bardock is going to be partially an OC because we really don't know enough about him. I don't even think the second movie he is in is canon, is it? You'll definitely start seeing glimpses of his Saiyan side.

_Guest:_ I'm gonna be totally frank with you. I don't think you will be happy with where my story is going and you're probably just wasting your time reading this. I'm not going to wait for Goku to be an adult when he finally meets his family. Sorry you didn't find what you're looking for in this fic, and maybe you're right, people might not like my concept, but that' okay because I have fun writing it! :) Thanks for the feedback.


	5. Oath

**If One Believed**

Chapter 4: Oath

_A young Saiyan boy with a lengthy mane of spiky black hair followed the heels of a creature quite alien to him. He watched its muscular arms sway forward then backward in a rhythmic motion. He counted its three fingers in his head and thought the number odd. He glanced down at his own five-fingered hands, and couldn't understand the use in two less. _

_He glanced back up at the creature's head. It was large and oblong. Its cranium stretched backward in a rather peculiar way. The boy cocked his head with childlike curiosity as he contemplated what this alien's brain would look like if he cracked open its skull._

_The alien suddenly turned to face the child and caught him staring. "What're _you_ looking at?"_

_The child's eyes grew wide with a sudden burst of fear, but he regained his composure. "Not much, bighead!" he fired back._

_The creature hissed and the child's heart rate increased dramatically. "Watch it, Saiyan scum!" it threatened._

_The alien withdrew its menacing glare and returned its focus to the task at hand. The boy exhaled a sigh of relief, and continued to follow in the odd-looking creature's footsteps. The alien warrior suddenly paused its hasty stride and the boy dug his heels into the tile flooring. He skidded, barely avoiding collision._

"_Here we are. Time to meet your new team mates, kid," the alien announced, displaying a smirk full of sharp canines. "They're a cheery bunch," it added with a snarky undertone._

_It curled its fingers into an awkward fist and knocked on a door._

_A child's snappish voice could be heard from within. "Get the door, Nappa!"_

_The alien snickered. "I'd say see ya later, but I probably won't," it said, before leaving the boy to the wolves._

_A giant of a Saiyan man opened the door and surveyed the child for a moment with unapologetically judgmental eyes._

"_Who is it, Nappa?" the voice from earlier demanded. _

_Nappa shot the boy a disapproving look. "Nobody important, just the new recruit," he responded._

"_Well, what are you waiting for?" his companion snapped. "Bring him here at once!"_

_The Saiyan boy suddenly felt like he might throw up his lunch. He was used to being looked down upon, but after the news he'd heard, he had hoped that these other survivors might actually take a liking to him. After all, there were only three of them left. Three._

_The boy followed the burly man into an adjoined room. The other child was sitting in a chair with a petulant frown adorning his face. He recognized this new person immediately by his infamous, dark-brown, flame-shaped hairdo.  
_

_The moment the boy entered the room and made eye-contact he fell to his knees and bowed in reverence._

"_Prince Vegeta…" the boy murmured in awe. "It is an honor to meet you, sir!"_

_The prince rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his chin in the palms of his hands. He sighed exasperatedly. "_This_ is the only other survivor?" he muttered in disbelief. _

"_Yes, sire. I had hoped for more as well," Nappa admitted._

"_To your feet!" Vegeta suddenly shouted.  
_

_The boy hopped to his feet so quickly he almost lost balance and fell._

"_Pathetic!" Vegeta spat._

_The boy's eyes fell to the floor in humiliation._

"_What's your name?" Vegeta asked._

"_R – Raditz, sir," the boy stammered._

"_R – Raditz," Vegeta derided with a laugh. "That's a fitting name for third-class Saiyan trash, don't you think?"_

"_Y – yes, Prince Vegeta," Raditz replied with a sinking feeling beginning to grip at his chest._

_The young prince hopped out of his seat and slowly circled Raditz like a lion toying with its prey._

"_It's been nearly a year and a half since our home-world was tragically destroyed by an asteroid, yet you only found out yesterday?" Vegeta assumed._

_Raditz nodded his head. "Yes, sir."_

"_Why is that?" Vegeta questioned._

"_I was off planet on a mission, sir," Raditz replied._

"_It took you _that_ long to purge a planet?"_

"_Yes, sir."_

"_Raditz, how old are you?" Vegeta asked._

"_I'm eight, sir."_

_Vegeta clicked on a button on his scouter. He tapped his index finger on his thigh while he impatiently waited for the scouter to give him a reading. A set of yellow numbers and symbols lit up the screen._

_He scoffed and said, "46."_

_Nappa couldn't withhold a chuckle of amusement. _

_Vegeta glared at him. "What's so _funny_, Nappa?!"_

"_You were born with a level higher than that!" Nappa replied with a grin._

_Vegeta idly scratched at his cheek. "Yes, I supposed that is somewhat comical in comparison."_

_Raditz's head bowed lower in shame, black bangs covered his eyes._

"_You should be glad your parents died from that blasted asteroid, because if they hadn't, they would have had to live with your disgraceful, utter uselessness weighing them down," Vegeta spat. He snickered for a moment and continued: "Look at me getting ahead of myself, Nappa! I almost forgot. His parents are third class trash too!"_

_Nappa laughed. "You're right, Vegeta!"_

_Vegeta scowled at Raditz. "Still… this is a _joke_! I can't believe Freeza sent this garbage to us. I refuse to fight alongside it."_

_Vegeta smirked as he lifted up the palm of his hand and a red ball of ki sparked to life in the center of it. The shade of crimson reflected in his icy glare. "I won't stand to look at _it_ any longer! I will not allow _it_ to humiliate us and taint what's left of our mighty race!"_

_Raditz stood frozen, staring at the ball of light like a doe caught in an oncoming car's headlamps. It was huge. He'd never seen such a display of power! He was amazed and terrified all at once._

"_Vegeta," Nappa interjected. "Think about what you're doing. Think about what Freeza will think of this."_

"_I don't care about what Freeza thinks!" the prince spat. "I am the prince of all Saiyans! He does not have the authority to choose whom of my race lives and dies! Damn-it! That is my sole right!"_

"_Vegeta, don't waste your energy on this scum. He won't survive his first mission with us anyway," Nappa persuaded._

_The sphere of ki flickered and then dissipated. The prince huffed and crossed his arms. "I suppose you're right, Nappa. _It_ isn't worth _my_ time."_

* * *

_Raditz lay flat on his back staring up at the blackened sky. It had been a long night, and he remembered none of it. All that he could recall is that the sun had disappeared, and then Vegeta tossed something up into the air. It was bright white like lightning, and it felt like the moon. Then he woke up flat on his back. It was almost as if all of the carnage of his first team mission hadn't happened, almost.  
_

_The other two were nearby, they were talking. There was a fire going. Nappa was roasting a native's arm over the fire. Vegeta was gnawing the last tidbits of flesh off of a long bone. Raditz continued to gaze up at the sky. Although it was currently pitch black on Planet Solaris , it was nearly starless – an odd phenomenon caused by the planet's unique atmosphere. Only the brightest stars' light permeated it, and even they appeared dull._

I survived,_ the boy thought with a triumphant grin. _They were wrong!

_The sun began to peek from behind its curtain, and the blanket of darkness was swept away._

"_Hey kid," Nappa spoke up. "Do you remember anything at all?"_

_Before Raditz could answer, Vegeta interrupted. "Of course he doesn't, you fool! He's nothing but third__ class trash! Everyone knows they have no control over their Oozaru forms!"_

"_Oh yeah," Nappa muttered._

_Raditz sat up suddenly. "That's not true!" he argued defiantly._

_Vegeta glared at him. "Come again?" he hissed. "It sounded as if you're calling me a liar!"_

_Raditz flinched. "N-no I'm not… not at all!"_

"_Then what were you gonna say, brat?" Nappa questioned with a smirk._

"_My dad… he said he remembers things when he transforms," Raditz said, losing all of his fire._

_Vegeta raised an eyebrow at him. "Really…?" he said._

"_Your pop's Bardock, right?" Nappa ventured to guess._

_Raditz smiled. "Yes!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Do you know him?"_

_Nappa's smirk broadened. "Oh yeah, _everyone_ knows him. He's got a reputation for being crazy, borderline insane!" He glanced at Vegeta. "His family really is the lowest of the low. His mother – oh the stories I've heard about her!"_

"_Stories?" Raditz murmured. He had a bad feeling about this.  
_

"_Oh yeah, kid. Your mom's even worse. Not only is she weak, and crazy too like your pop, she's so loose you were probably drowning in an ocean when you were in her!" Nappa teased._

_Raditz's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Loose?"_

_Vegeta snickered. "You're such a stupid kid!"_

_Raditz resisted the urge to retort what he was thinking: _It takes one to know one!

"_He doesn't get it, Nappa," Vegeta continued. "But what can you expect from a third class? He's probably inbred."_

"_No doubt!" Nappa replied with a derisive laugh. He looked Raditz straight in the eyes and said, "Brat, your mom's a filthy whore!"_

_Raditz clenched his fists and screamed, "Take that back, you jerk!"_

_There was suddenly a blip sound, and Nappa's and Vegeta's scouters started calculating._

_Nappa crossed his arms. "Well, I'll be… 200."_

_Raditz jumped at Nappa with his fist targeted at his smug face. Nappa caught it with ease and held him up to eye-level by the wrist. Raditz's free arm and legs flailed madly at the fiend, but they were too short and stubby to reach the big man. In desperation, he began to try and claw away at Nappa's curled fingers._

"_Let go!" Raditz demanded._

_Nappa laughed. "Hey, Vegeta, maybe this kid's got some fire in him after all? If we want him to really fight all we gotta do is bring up his cunt of a mother!"_

_Raditz seethed. "Shut up you asshole!"_

_This only made Nappa laugh all the more. "That's a dirty mouth you got there! Didn't your mother ever wash it out with soap? Oh yeah, she reserved that for her own mouth. She needed something to clean out all that cu-"_

"_Enough, Nappa!" Vegeta interjected, tossing his now cleaned bone to the ground. "You're going to make me barf! Put the trash down. We leave at once. It was hot enough without that sun beating down on us."_

_Nappa dropped Raditz and retrieved his fire-roasted Solarian arm to take as carry-out onboard his pod. "We stoppin' at Planet 76?"_

_Vegeta seemed to contemplate it for a moment. "Yes," he finally said. "There's another planet nearby that Freeza may assign to us."_

"_Ah yeah!" Nappa exclaimed. "That one's supposed to be interesting. I hope he gives it to us!"_

_Raditz sat absolutely still on the earth in the same spot that Nappa had deposited him on for nearly half an hour. He watched his teammates' pods leave, and then continued to stare at the empty space they'd left behind. The planet was dead silent. _

_Raditz hunched over and pulled his knees up to his chest. The weight of reality suddenly crashed down upon his shoulders. His parents were long-dead, and he was all that they'd left in their legacy. He felt pathetic, and he felt angry all at once. He felt weak, but he knew that he could grow stronger._

"_I'm gonna kill you for saying that stuff about Mother and Father," he muttered under his breath venomously. He stood up on his feet and screamed at the yellow sky. "You hear me? I'm gonna kill you, Nappa!"_

* * *

A/N: This chapter got me to thinking about how much shit Raditz probably went through in his short life, and it makes me really sad that Toriyama decided to get rid of him… It's funny how it had never occurred to me until I decided to write about it a little bit.

_Tellemicus Sundance:_ Thank you for your review and thanks for the advice! I promise Bardock and Catsia won't have it easy! :)

_Jonathan:_ Thank you! If I interpreted that right, then Goku's parents are going to encounter him after he hits his head, so yes, he will be Goku, not technically Kakarrot.

_TFSGoku:_ Thanks a bunch for the pep talk! :D As for Catsia's burgundy hair, it would only be anime-cannon. Toriyama has said that he sees Saiyans as only having black hair, but he gave Toei the permission to give Saiyans different colored hair for the Bardock special because he wanted them to be more diverse in appearance. I recall seeing Saiyans with black, brown, navy, rustic red, and even blonde hair in both the special and in flashbacks from the anime… yeah I totally said blonde and not Super Saiyan blonde lol. Though I personally like to think that they have darker shades of hair.

_Super mystic gohan: _Thank you for the feedback! I'll consider it in the grand scheme of things.


	6. Mission Rescue Raditz

**If One Believed**

Chapter 5: Mission Rescue Raditz

Raditz flopped down on the makeshift cot in his living-quarters and exhaled a long sigh. He clenched both fists and ground his molars together in frustration. He had returned to Freeza Planet 76 just in time to watch his teammates' departure for another mission.

_They think I'm useless._

It was probably for the best – Raditz was still thoroughly exhausted from his last mission – but he didn't see it that way. He'd thought that he'd begun to prove himself to them, but he realized now that he was wrong.

_They thought I'd be dead by now. I'm not. But I'm still nothing compared to them. Nappa could have soloed me easily… I'm only alive because he thinks it's fun to torture me._

With a weary groan, Raditz rolled onto his back and stared blankly up at the ceiling. The grayish surface glared back at him with its everlasting monotony of color. He felt lower than dirt.

_What would Father think of me now?_

Raditz closed his eyes and picture his father's stern face.

_Bardock grimaced. "Just lying around as usual I see."_

"_No… I just finished a mission, I'm tired," Raditz defended._

"_That's just an excuse. You're lucky to be alive! You're always going to be weak if you're a slackass. Get up and give me 1,000 push-ups!"_

Raditz's eyelids suddenly retracted and he sat up. He stared at the palms of his hands. "Father's right. I'm weak because I'm lazy." He clenched his fists and grinned determinedly. "I'm going to get stronger, and then I'm going to prove them wrong!"

Raditz hopped out of bed. _I know… I'll go train with all the fancy training stuff they have in the gym here. I'll definitely get big and strong!_

Raditz was so pumped up; he jogged down the hallways in search of the training area. He wasn't entirely watching where he was going and he nearly tripped on a dead body that lay strewn across the pathway.

Raditz stumbled backward and flapped his arms in an awkward attempt to regain his balance. He stared at the bloody heap in front of him and stepped backward in shock. He suddenly heard a shout and a grunt, followed by the sound of something hitting the ground hard resounding on the walls, ceiling, and floor. By the sound of it, something was going on not too far away.

Raditz squinted down the long hallway to try any see anything suspicious, but he couldn't decipher anything. He glanced back over his shoulder. Nobody was witness. Nobody knew that he'd heard. He could just turn and run away, and nobody would know any better.

There was another shout and then a blood-curdling scream. Raditz involuntary backed away from the commotion. His heart began to pound in his chest.

_That guy that's dead is probably stronger than me. If I stay and fight I'm gonna die… If I run away… I'm a coward, and I don't deserve to live._

Raditz smacked the palm of his hand repeatedly against his forehead. _What am I supposed to do?!_

He ran his shaky fingers through his mane of jet-black hair and exhaled. He repeated in his head what he'd been taught since he could walk: _I have to stand and fight. I'm a Saiyan! Saiyans are not allowed to be scared!_

Raditz quietly crept down the corridor, his heart pounded against his ribcage. He could hear it thrumming madly. Every footstep, every breath was enhanced tenfold. He felt terrified, and at the same time, exhilarated. The closer he approached the carnage, the quicker his pulse became, and the thirstier his eyes appeared with a lust for the fight until all reason flew out the window and he rushed blindly forward with arm extended, and fist clenched. He yelled out a battle cry.

Something caught his fist easily. He suddenly felt the sharp, crushing pressure of fingers curled around his neck. The bruises that had been left from his prior scuffle with Nappa ached and burned in protest. Raditz clawed at the fingers and choked for air. He opened his eyes and let out a strangled gasp. He could have sworn that staring right back at him with a fiery intensity was his mother's own eyes.

"Raditz!" she snapped. "What the _fuck_?!"

The death-grip around his neck slackened and his back slid down the wall until his bottom made contact with the floor below.

Raditz didn't reply. He just stared at her wide-eyed and slack-jawed. He questioned whether or not he was hallucinating or sane for that matter.

The 'phantom' of his mother was enraged. Her top lip curled upward in a scowl. "What the hell was that?! Have you learned _nothing_? How many times do I have to tell you to keep your eyes _open_ when you attack?! Not to mention, I could have _killed_ you!"

Raditz's bottom lip bobbed up and down as if he was attempting to speak, but no sound came out. He stared unblinkingly at her – unable to comprehend what was happening.

Catsia roughly grabbed his bicep and pulled him up into a wobbly standing position. "Close your mouth before a bug flies in and chokes you," she scolded.

Raditz obeyed and blinked at her repeated. He rubbed his eyes, and blinked at her some more, surprised that the vision of her wasn't disappearing. The thought finally occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, she might actually be real.

"M – Mother?" he asked.

Catsia raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Who else would I be?"

Raditz's lips trembled uncontrollably again as he smiled with unconditional happiness. "You're alive!"

Catsia smirked. "Give me some credit. I'm not that easy to kill, ya' know! Now, snap out of it! We've got a mission to accomplish!"

"A mission?" Raditz asked.

"Yep! You're gonna help me and your Dad bust you out of this hellhole," she replied with a grin.

"Father is…"

"Oh _c'mon_, of course he is! Now, follow me," Catsia commanded, sprinting down the hall.

Raditz tried to keep up with his mother as she stormed down the winding corridors, plowing down any soldier that got in her way. After a few minutes, a siren went off, and red blinking lights lit up the hallway.

Catsia laughed in amusement. "We've practically torn down this station, andjust_ now_ they think that we're a threat?!"

It was not long before Catsia caught sight of Bardock. "Guess who found our kid first," she exclaimed as if it was a competition.

Bardock glanced at his son and shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "I guess I got caught up in slaughtering all of Freeza's men. Time flies when you're having fun."

"Why can't you just admit that I beat you?" she teased.

Bardock was about to respond but took pause when Catsia's and Raditz's scouters suddenly beeped.

"We've got company," she muttered, "and with a power level of 7,000 to boot!"

"That's nothing I can't handle. Take Raditz and get outta here. I'll meet up with you later," Bardock instructed.

Catsia's eyebrows creased together. "How will you find us?"

Bardock stooped over and snatched a green scouter from one of the dead soldiers on the floor. He fiddled around with it a bit and asked, "What's your comm number?"

"It's 1044," she replied.

"I'll contact you when I'm off planet. I want you to leave first. I don't want to risk them following you," Bardock explained.

Catsia shot him a glowering look. "I can handle myself."

"I don't want to risk anything with Raditz weighing you down," Bardock countered in stern tone.

Raditz bowed his head in shame. Catsia eyed Bardock, still wavering indecisively between staying and going.

Bardock's scouter beeped at him. The large power level was fast approaching. "Damn-it, Catsia. Go _now!_" he snapped.

"Fine," Catsia grumbled.

Just as Catsia and Raditz made their move to leave, they were blockaded by a newcomer. Raditz recognized the alien as the one that had escorted him to Vegeta's and Nappa's living-quarters.

"Where do you think you're going?" the alien with the peculiar, elliptical-shaped head questioned.

"Your fight's with me," Bardock interjected.

The alien chuckled in amusement. "Believe me, I have no problem with beating you to a bloody pulp, Saiyan, but my first order of business is with the brat. He's property of the Planet Trade Organization and his Lordship, Master Freeza. He is not to leave the planet."

"He's retracting his loyalty to that scumbag, effective immediately," Bardock retorted.

The alien narrowed a pair of blood-orange eyes at the Saiyan man. "That's not your decision to make.

Raditz smirked and puffed out his chest proudly. "Tangereen," he addressed the purple alien by name. "I refuse to be Freeza's slave anymore!"

It was Bardock's turn to laugh. "Well, there ya' have it, smartass!"

Tangereen shrugged his shoulders apathetically. "You'll wish you hadn't done that, kid," he threatened. He then turned his attention to Bardock and said, "You want a fight me, Saiyan?"

Bardock grinned maliciously. "First of all, the name's Bardock, and second of all, it's not gonna be much of a fight."

Tangereen snickered. "No, no it won't."

Bardock didn't waste any time considering a strategy other than pounding Tangereen's smug face in. He flew straight at him, and Tangereen countered by tossing two sky-blue ki blasts point-blank at the Saiyan.

"What an amateur move," Tangereen scoffed.

The light of the blasts of energy faded and Tangereen blinked at the emptiness they left in their wake.

_How did he dodge that?_

Tangereen's scouter blipped. Bardock was fast approaching. He could feel a rush of air smack against the top of his head.

_Above!_

It was too late for the alien to retaliate. A pair of Bardock's intertwined fists came pounding down on the top of his cranium and he body-slammed the floor instantaneously. The resulting pressure left a spider web of cracks on the tile beneath him.

"I'll say," Bardock retorted, swinging his leg back with the intention of kicking Tangereen in the side.

Tangereen grunted and dodged Bardock's boot in the nick of time. When he righted himself completely, he dusted off his uniform in a display of nonchalance and scowled bitterly at the Saiyan.

"You'll pay for that!" he hissed.

Bardock quirked an eyebrow with amusement. "I seriously doubt that, but kudos for still being conscious."

A familiar feeling suddenly swept over Bardock, and his vision went black.

_..._

_He finds himself on a familiar terrain. It's a rocky landscape chock-full of cliffs and plateaus in the backdrop of a baby-blue sky. He's seen a vision of this place before, but it's different this time. He sees his son Kakarrot this time. He looks to be a young adult. _

_The green pointy-eared alien from a previous unforgettable vision is also present. He's standing to the side of Kakarrot. _

"_Piccolo, if you're looking for a fight, this isn't the best time," Kakarrot growls._

"_Don't get ahead of yourself, Son. I'm here for the same reason as you," the green warrior responds icily._

Damn it_, Bardock thinks. _I don't need to see this now!

_The vision is as strong as ever, and Bardock can't force it to the recesses of his mind. Across from Kakarrot and Piccolo are two other warriors. They're Saiyan. One of them Bardock instantly recognizes as General Nappa, and the other looks the spitting image of his father, the King._

_The Saiyan prince crosses his arms and scoffs at the new arrival. "This isn't any of your business, Namekian."_

_The green warrior frowns slightly. "Namekian…" he mutters._

_Kakarrot side-glances at his 'companion' with a puzzled look. "What's he talking about, Piccolo?"_

_Piccolo doesn't respond, he's too wrapped up in his own thoughts._

"_Never mind," the prince mutters, his cold stare returning to Kakarrot._

_Nappa glares at the young Saiyan. "You should pay your Prince the proper respect and bow."_

"_Prince…" Kakarrot repeats quietly. "What are you talking about?"_

"_What?!" Nappa bellows. "How dare you…!"._

"_Enough!" Vegeta interjects. "Kakarrot, grovel at my feet for forgiveness, and I may let you live."_

_Kakarrot frowns. His eyebrows start to form a crease. "My name is Goku, and I have nothing to be sorry for!"_

_..._

The vision receded just in time for Bardock to dodge a right hook to his cheek, but he was pinned up against a wall, and the opponent's knee came flying up out of seemingly nowhere and jabbed him in the gut.

A green energy blast came in from the side and collided with Tangereen, sending him careening down the hallway. Bardock felt like he'd been used as a punching bag in his momentary absence. He fell to his knees clenching his stomach and gagging in pain.

Catsia was suddenly in front of him, cupping his chin in the palm of her hand. She was concerned. "Are you okay?"

Bardock nodded his head.

"That's why I didn't want to leave," she muttered irritatedly. "Sorry babe, but you're gonna have to sit this one –"

_..._

_Catsia's anxious face transforms into the angry face of Kakarrot. He's practically seething with rage._

"_I don't care if I'm a Saiyan! I was raised on Earth, and I will protect this planet and her people with my life!" he shouts._

"_If you love this mudball so much, then you have no choice," Vegeta retorts with a chuckle of amusement. "You will come with us Kakarrot, because if you don't, I'm going to blast this planet and everyone you love to kingdom come!"_

_..._

The vision shattered to pieces as a gut-wrenching shriek suddenly pulled Bardock back to reality. In his direct line of site was Catsia. Her arm was extended, having just pushed Raditz to the ground. Her body was falling backward. A blast of shimmering blue ki had slammed into her torso and it sent her body earthward with a loud thud. She tumbled uncontrollably a few times before coming to a standstill upon smacking into a wall.

"Momma!" Raditz screamed frantically, jumping to his feet and running to her fallen form.

He slipped on a trail of her blood and fell on top of her sobbing. "I'm sorry, Momma! I'm sorry!"

Bardock didn't have time to let everything absorb. Catsia was badly hurt. She needed medical attention, and she wasn't going to get that here.

"Raditz! Take your mother and get off of this planet!" he commanded.

Raditz turned to him with a look of utter confusion and fear. "But she's bleeding everywhere! She's gonna die, she's gonna die… what do I –"

Bardock suddenly appeared in front of Raditz and slapped him across the face. The blow knocked the breath out of the child. Bardock clenched his fists at his sides, and exhaled slowly – attempting to regain a solitary strand of composure. His fists shook uncontrollably. "Get out _now_!" he screamed.

Raditz stared at him with wide, terrified eyes, and his head bobbed up and down impulsively. "Y – yes, Father!" he stammered. He grabbed a hold of his mother's forearms and draped them over his shoulder. She groaned in pain. A trail of blood began to seep down the front-side of Raditz's chest-plate.

"I'm gonna get you help," Raditz promised, as he took off in the direction of the launch pad dragging his mother in-tow.

Bardock turned his full attention to Tangereen. It gave him pleasure to see that Catsia had inflicted quite a bit of damage before going down, but just thinking about it brought back the memory of the pain that he had just inflicted upon her. It made him furious that he'd not been able to protect his mate when she needed him. It made him absolutely livid that it had turned out that way because of another worthless vision.

The air became thick with Bardock's turbulent rage. Debris began to defy gravity and levitate around his form. Tufts of his hair rose and fell like ripples in a once placid lake.

"Now you've gone and made me pissed," Bardock snapped with a wild look in his eyes. "Nobody harms my family and lives to tell the story. I'm going to rip you apart, limb from limb, and then I'm going to bask in the shower of your blood as you beg me for mercy!"

* * *

A/N: Thank you all for the feedback. I have 20 favorites now, yay! Thanks! :D

_Jonathan: _Thanks for the review! :) I'm not sure how much help I could be… What did you have in mind?

_Tellemicus Sundance:_ You didn't get the Vegeta/Nappa confrontation in this chapter, but I'm not done with them. They're going to make an appearance at some point... :) I just honestly think the confrontation would be better when Vegeta is older and stronger.

_NatNicole:_ I will totally look into 'Catalyst' next time I have some free time on my hands. It sounds good… right now I'm a little swamped with stuff :-/ I do like Turles though ;-)

_Isilithix:_ I totally see what you mean by rushing to get to the 'true' beginning of the story. I see that a lot in Bardock fanfiction, and it totally turns me off. That's the last thing I want to do. I see Bardock as a blank page, and I want to spend some time fleshing out his character before he even reaches Earth, but at the same time I don't want to take an eternity to get to that point. I appreciate your thoughts on the matter! Maybe you can keep me in line? ;)

_Super mystic gohan: _Maybe in a later chapter that will happen? :)

_Those-carrots: _:-/ Sorry to say he won't be a Super Saiyan any time soon… Thanks for the review though :)


	7. As Luck Would Have It

**If One Believed**

Chapter 6: As Luck Would Have It  


"_Father?" Raditz implored quietly._

_The boy's eyes trailed a large man's form as he stormed across the room. As he passed, a wave of cold air brushed against the child's face and sent a chill up his spine._

"_If you want to leave then so fucking be it!" Bardock spat._

"_Oh I will!" another voice retorted from the doorway. "You're blind, Bardock! One of these days you're gonna see it, and it's gonna be too damn late!"_

"_Father…" Raditz repeated, his eyebrows puckering together in a sort of anxious confusion. _

_The person standing in the doorway vanished. The sound of a door clicking open, squeaking, and then abruptly slamming shut reverberated its way into the room shortly thereafter._

_Raditz didn't understand what was going on. He didn't have the slightest clue why his dad was so mad. He wasn't even a little bit interested in what was happening at the moment. He had something else on his mind._

"_Momma won't talk to me," Raditz murmured solemnly._

_Bardock placed his hand on a chair and dug his nails into it, while his opposite hand combed through his disarray of jet-black locks. The then three year old Saiyan crossed the space in-between himself and his parent. He tugged at the bottom of Bardock's leg-guard._

"_Father!" he persisted more loudly this time. "Sister is dumb… she sleeped too much!"_

_The hand clenching at the back of the chair trembled. "She's not sleeping," Bardock replied in a grated tone._

"_Why is her eyes not opened?" Raditz asked naively._

_Raditz could decipher a subtle crunching sound as Bardock ground his molars together. It was soon accompanied by a snapping sound as a piece of the chair splintered in Bardock's curled fingers. He suddenly whipped around and locked his piercing onyx gaze with his son. "She's dead!" he barked furiously. "That's why!"_

_Raditz's eyes widened and he stared at his father in utter shock. "Dead?" he muttered, barely audible._

"_Yes," was the icy reply._

_At the tender age of three, Raditz didn't entirely understand the concept of death. He knew that it happened to a lot of people, and that sometimes it spread like an illness. He knew that when someone died it meant that they wouldn't talk to you anymore. They didn't do anything. They didn't even want to fight. Then he would see the big blue flame again. Everyone would wear their best armor to see it, and they would watch in silence as the flame turned the person into ash and smoke. Then he never saw them again._

_Raditz shook his head. "No!" he argued, throwing his fists up in the air. "She can't be. I'm mad at her! I still gotta beat her up, and if she won't fight me then it won't be fair! Make her wake up! She can be dead later!"_

_Bardock narrowed his eyes at the boy and snarled, "You don't get it, brat! She's dead. That means that she's gone forever and she is _never_ coming back!"_

_Raditz's eyes began to well up with tears. He sniffled and rubbed his eyes with his fists._

"_D – Did she go dead 'cause she's w – weak?" Raditz stammered, his chest beginning to convulse as the tears flowed down his flushed cheeks._

_Bardock scowled at his son. "No," he replied through gritted teeth. "She died because _you_ are weak!"_

_Raditz blinked at him and rubbed at his eyes some more. "M – Me?"_

"_You heard me!" Bardock replied. He snatched Raditz's forearm and pulled one of his tiny hands away from his face. "Enough with the water-works already! You're far too old for this!" he shouted._

"_S – sorry, Father," the boy replied in between uncontrollable sobs._

_..._

Raditz came to with a groan. One eyelid sluggishly lifted halfway to wink at the world in front of him; he yawned. His body felt achy and stiff as a board. He hazily percepted his surroundings as being that of the inside of his space pod. He groaned, sitting up, and blinking away the sleep from his eyes.

"What happened…" he muttered quietly.

...

"_Raditz! Take your mother and get off of this planet!"_

"_Get out _now_!"_

_..._

Memories of prior events assaulted his brain in a swift wave of lucidity. He groaned again, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his forehead in his hands.

...

"_Shit! Raditz! Take your father and get off this planet!" his mother shouted._

_Raditz blinked at his father's limp form. "What's wrong with him?!"_

"_No time! Get out _now_!"_

_Raditz looked in-between his mother and Tangereen. He couldn't just leave her to fight him all by herself. She didn't stand a chance. His scouter had displayed Tangereen's power level too. He knew._

"_No!" Raditz argued. "I want to stay and fight! I want to help you!"_

_Catsia glared at Raditz. "This is _my_ fight, brat! How dare you insult me like this?" she snapped furiously, then muttered under her breath, "ungrateful child…"_

"_S – Sorry, Mother!"_

_..._

Raditz opened up the hatch and stumbled his way outside, taking in the purple atmosphere and orange, lifeless cliffs surrounding him as far as the eyes could see.

...

_Tangereen motioned his hands in a 'come hither' sort of way. "Hand him over, monkey-boy."_

_Raditz scowled at the alien. "Make me bighead!"_

_Tangereen smirked. Raditz could decipher the subtle hiss of his mother cursing. Suddenly Tangereen was in front of him, his fist extended and shattering the distance between the two in a mere instant. Pain exploded in Raditz's jaw and he recoiled backward, dropping his father's body._

_Tangereen snatched Bardock's flaccid form by his neck and lifted him up to eye-level, pinning him against a wall. He chuckled maliciously. "Lord Freeza would be furious with me if I let this ape live, and quite frankly, I love ridding the universe of such filth."_

_Raditz stared up at the fiend frozen in terror. He had no idea how to react. His father was a dead man. He gasped as his father's eyes suddenly opened. Bardock dodged Tangereen's incoming fist by the skin of his teeth only to receive a knee to the gut._

_A green flash of ki shot past Raditz's face and smashed into Tangereen, effectively freeing his father. Raditz turned to seek out the assaulter._

"_M – Mother!" he exclaimed with a celebratory smile and pride gleaming in his eyes._

_..._

Raditz turned around in a circle, surveying his entire perimeter in search of another pod. There was nothing. He was completely alone. He punched some buttons on his scouter. His was the highest power level on the planet, but there were others – incredibly weak ones and twos.

Raditz jogged forward, hopping his way up onto the top of a nearby precipice. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Mother!" he shouted. "Mother can you hear me? Mother!"

He sighed and sat on his haunches. "Where are you?" he muttered despondently.

...

_As before - with absolutely no warning - his father passed out again. Catsia glanced over her shoulder at Raditz, an anxious look on her face. "Raditz!" She rummaged around the top of her armor and pulled out two keys. "Look alive!" She shouted, tossing them at her son._

_Raditz extended his hands and the set of keys bounced upward and out of his grasp. They clinked as they hit the ground. Catsia didn't skip a beat. "Pick it up!" she ordered while lifting up her mate's body._

"_Take your father! Don't argue! Just take him and go!"_

_Raditz nodded, retrieving the keys and tucking them under his chest plate with his trembling, clumsy hands. He frowned slightly. "But how will you?"_

"_Shut up and take him!" Catsia snapped._

_She was about to toss him to Raditz when a sudden spark of energy caused her scouter to blip and diverted her attention. She glanced to her left, and Raditz followed her line of sight. He gaped at a large concentration of iridescent blue ki heading straight toward him._

_He could do nothing but stand frozen as a statue and stare at it stupidly. Meanwhile, something hard smacked into his side and sent him earthward. He hit the ground hard, and a terrifying thought shot through his brain._

_He heard a splitting shriek, and he whipped his head in the direction of his rescuer. His worst fear had come to life: his mother was falling back, screaming. Her jugular veins popped out as she clenched her teeth to try and stifle her cry. A mist of blood sprayed into the air and onto Raditz, but he didn't blink. His eyes were glued open. It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. Every sordid detail of it refracted onto his retinas. He could smell and taste the coppery blood. He shuddered when her body hit the floor with a resounding thump._

_..._

To say that Raditz hadn't properly planned out their escape would be a bit of an understatement. He didn't know what to do other than to get his seriously injured mother off of the planet, but she needed immediate medical attention or she was going to die. He panicked and picked a random planet, and now here he was in the middle of space-nowhere.

Raditz collapsed forward onto the orange dirt. The individual grains dug into the skin of his face uncomfortably. He clenched his hands into fists and slammed them repeatedly onto the ground as hard as he could, causing it to form small craters.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot!" he hissed under his breath. _She might already be dead…_

Raditz pulled himself up out of his prone position and exhaled a slow and shaky breath. "I'm not leaving you, Mother."

He tapped away at the buttons on his scouter. "Where's your pod? It's not in the system. Of course, you guys deactivated the tracking… I guess I'll just have to look the old fashioned way."

Raditz took to the sky. He shielded his eyes from the sun as he flew overhead, scanning the ground for any trace of his mother's arrival.

_I sent her first. She should be here… somewhere…_

After about half an hour of flying he finally caught sight of something metallic glinting in the powerful sun's rays. Raditz soared toward it at top speed. He grinned.

_Yes! That's it! It has to be!_

Raditz landed behind the aircraft and ran around to its front. "Mother!"

Raditz skidded to a halt when he caught sight of a puddle of blood at the face of the pod. The hatch was open and the inside was completely empty – save for more blood.

"No…" Raditz murmured. "No, no, no!" He ran his fingers through his thick black mane.

The puddle led onward into a subtle trail of blood drops in the dirt. Raditz bent over and pinched a small portion of the blood stained dirt between his thumb and finger.

_It's still wet. I just missed her._

The trail of blood led to a small village comprised of cave dwellings carved into the face of a large mountain. Raditz entered the largest of the holes at the foot of the mountain. There was no light source inside so Raditz lit a small tuft of blue ki above the tip of his index finger to illuminate his surroundings. Strange carvings adorned the cave walls, but the pathway was entirely smooth – interrupted only by the small trail of blood his mother had left behind in her wake.

"Mother!" Raditz called out. "Can you hear me? Where are you?"

Only silence responded. Raditz quickened his pace down the hallway, taking a turn into an opening to the right, and rapidly descending deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels.

At long last, Raditz finally came upon an opening into a large cavern. It was lined with patches of enormous crimson crystals that glowed and alighted the room with a blood-red hue. In the center of the cavernous space was a pool of liquid as black as a starless night sky.

He spotted his mother floating belly-up on the surface of the water. There were three small furry creatures surrounding her and they were holding up their arms with the palms of their hands parallel with the long axis of her body. A soft humming sound reverberated in their throats and continued to echo around the enclosed space.

"Mother!" Raditz exclaimed, breaking the tranquility and sprinting toward her unconscious form.

Upon noticing the brash intruder, the little creatures clicked at each other in fear and fled in the opposite direction. Raditz jumped into the pool. He picked his mother up bridal-style, and shuffled his way back onto land. Raditz pulled his mother's soaked hair out of her face and gently smacked the side of her cheek.

"Mother, wake up!" he pleaded.

Catsia groaned and her eyelids fluttered open. She gazed at her son's face with a puzzled expression for a moment before sitting up.

"What happened?" she murmured mostly to herself.

She then suddenly placed her hand on her upper chest where she'd been hit. The skin was nearly uninterrupted. It was almost entirely healed – a surface wound only.

"What the?" she muttered with shock. She turned to face her son. "Raditz, I'm healed. What did you do?"

* * *

A/N: Thank you for the reviews and the favorites! I will try to update soon! :)

_jonathan_: You aren't the only one who wants Goku to be with Bulma in this story. I'm considering it, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Thanks a bunch for the suggestions.

_Hedgehog of Time:_ You could say that, but probably not in the same way. This family member is already in existence. :)

_Tellemicus Sundance: _Thanks for the feedback! :) You'll probably also be seeing more of Vegeta and Nappa before that point - what with Bardock's visions and all ;) I also want to explore how the early departure of Raditz would affect Vegeta.


	8. Hatred

**If One Believed**

Chapter 7: Hatred

Bardock glowered as Tangereen tapped his foot and clicked his tongue. "You know what, Saiyan?"

Bardock's glowering look morphed into a full-on scowl "What?" he hissed.

Tangereen smirked. "You're all bark and no bite."

Bardock flat-out laughed. "I don't have time for this bullshit." He clenched and unclenched his fists – the sound of his knuckles crackling ominously could be distinguished as his grin spread wide open to display his canines. "Consider yourself lucky. It's not often that I let someone so weak as yourself see my full potential and you've got a front row seat."

"Well, let's just see about that." Tangereen clicked a button on his scouter. The alien numbers blinked on the screen and it let out a beep. Tangereen growled. "Th – this can't be accurate!" He punched at the buttons again. "Argh! Damn thing's broken!"

Bardock raised an eyebrow and grinned with amusement.

"I'm gonna wipe that stupid grin off your face, you savage Neanderthal!" Tangereen shouted.

He realized a moment later that he had shouted at something that was no longer there. He blinked at the empty space in shock.

"What the -"

He glanced from side-to-side, then up.

"I'm here," a cold voice whispered in his ear as he suddenly felt a menacing presence hovering behind him.

His scouter was snatched. The alien spun around to confront Bardock, but crumpled to the ground when a fist hammered into his flank.

Bardock examined the readout on the scouter as his opponent choked on the air that had been forced out of his lungs. Tangereen clutched at his side and glared at Bardock. His breathing was suddenly short and raspy.

Bardock smirked. "11,000? Not bad. I guess getting the shit beaten out of me twice in one day was worth it after all."

Bardock tossed the scouter on the floor and stomped on it with his boot. The sound of it crunching under his weight was oddly satisfying. His attention returned to Tangereen just as he was getting back up on his feet

"What's wrong?" Bardock teased. "Out of breath already, or did I just puncture a lung? I could never tell where the organs are on you freaky things."

"Laugh it up, Saiyan scum. I've been through worse and came out on top."

"Well, it's about time you realize that your time has come. I'm always on top," Bardock retorted with a cheeky smirk.

"Repulsing primate," Tangereen muttered, spitting a wad of blood to the floor and promptly wiping a trickle of the residual red substance from the corner of his mouth.

Bardock's form disappeared again, and his opponent struggled to follow his movement. Try as he might, he could only comprehend subtle after-images. He saw a sudden glimpse of two hands reaching out to him before both his upper arms were constricted. Bardock's face came into view, mere inches from his own. He was grinning like a madman.

Bardock jammed his knee into Tangereen's abdomen. The sheer, explosive bout of pain was plainly visible on the alien's face. His mouth hung agape, a mixture of spit and blood spraying out.

Bardock didn't miss a beat and violently twisted the creature's arms backward and up, effectively tearing them out of their sockets and eliciting a blood-curdling scream.

Tangereen's arms were freed to wobble down at his sides lifelessly, and both Bardock's hands suddenly clamped onto his bulbous head, a sudden desire to see his skull crack and bits of brain and cerebral fluid seep out taking over his thoughts. He clenched harder, his nails digging into the creature's grayish-purple scalp.

Tangereen gritted his teeth, but he couldn't withhold the resultant shriek of pain. This only made Bardock's blood boil hotter.

"St-stop!" Tangereen outright begged,

"_Come on!_" Bardock shouted, followed by a deranged chuckle. "Don't tell me you're not _enjoying_ every bit of this?! You're the one with the death wish!"

He squeezed tighter. The distinct crackle of bone splintering intermingled with screaming filled the air, and it was like music to his ears.

...

_Bardock blinks. He's standing on a completely foreign planet of many green and brown hues. But his surroundings are inconsequential. In stark contrast to the greens and browns is a brightly colored orange gi outfitted upon the younger and softer clone of himself._

_The boy has his back to him, but his identity is immediately obvious._

_Bardock reaches out his hand to his son. "I – I know you!" he exclaims. "You're my son!"_

_Kakarrot only turns his head at first, sparing his father an anxious glance. He shakes his head, disappointment unmistakably lacing his words: "Don't you see, Father?"_

Can it be possible? Can he see me?

"_See what?" he replies, hoping in earnest that his assumption is true._

_Kakarrot looks quite frankly heart-broken and down-cast all of a sudden. He turns completely. He shakes his head again, but differently this time, a look of resolute desire on his countenance._

"_It isn't too late, Father," he says in a sincerely hopeful tone._

_Bardock frowns. He doesn't like the sound of this. "Too late for what?" he asks._

"_To be different," Kakarrot replies bluntly, "than _him._"_

_The face of Freeza flashes in Bardock's mind's eye. He's laughing – no cackling maliciously. He knows somehow that he's laughing at him, his family, his proud race of fellow Saiyans. No word, nor sound can suffice to express the feeling that washes over Bardock just then. He drowns in it, and wakes up sputtering, coughing, and gasping for air in reality._

_..._

His hands are clenched; trails of blood are still slithering their way down his forearms. The blood is tepid. His victim is long gone. He obviously ran away like a coward before Bardock came to. The imprint of his bloody skull on the wall in front of Bardock and the trickling substance on his flesh the only indicators that he was ever there to begin with.

Bardock punched the red bull's-eye on the wall and let out a frustrated growl. "Damn-it!" he shouted, withdrawing his fist from the newly acquired hole and staring at his trembling palm. _Coward!_

…

_It is suddenly dark. A shadowy figure is chuckling._

"_What's so funny?" as second voice demands – he recognizes it as his own._

"_You, Bardock," a male voice responds, he emphasizes the name of his sole spectator._

_What strikes him is the familiarity of this voice. He knows this person, but not well-enough to pinpoint a face to the sound of his voice._

_His future self scoffs at him._

"_If I was a better person I'd tell you I hate to say I told you so, but I'm not a good person. I am, however, an intelligent person. I really do wish I could say the same for you," the voice continues.  
_

"_Just say what it is you want to say and be done with it already," his future self snaps back irately._

"_You never were one for patience, always running headlong into one mess after another. It's a miracle you aren't dead. I can tell by the bitter expression hardened on your face that you've finally seen the light or rather more accurately, the dark." Another chuckle resonated throughout the room. "I told you so," the voice said callously._

…

Bardock placed his palm on a wall and leaned against it while clutching his forehead in his opposing hand. He suddenly had a raging headache. It felt as if he'd spent the night prior binge drinking hard alcohol. Quite frankly, he wished he had spent it that way.

"Seriously need to control this shit," he muttered to himself. _As soon as I get a break, as soon as I get to Earth, I'm gonna nip this fortune-telling bullshit in the bud!_

After promptly returning to the docking bay and hotwiring a pod, he tapped a few buttons on his scouter and waited for it to connect with Catsia's own device.

_C'mon, woman! Answer it already!_

After multiple failed attempts, Bardock accessed the computer's planetary database and skimmed through the list of planets, hoping for one that would catch his eye.

_Damn, there's no possible way to know where they went! I don't know if Catsia was even awake when the decision was made! Planet Hoptalis is the closest planet with a healing center that isn't overrun by Freeza. She would know to go there… but Raditz…_

Bardock exhaled an exasperated sigh, and set a new destination en route to Planet Hoptalis.

_You better be there Catsia! You better be alive!_

The trip wasn't far. Cryostasis wasn't necessary. The ship's computer followed set protocol and placed Bardock into a deep but eventful sleep:

_A teenage boy with a long face, short black spiky hair, and tan skin ran up behind Bardock, locked his arm around his throat, and gave him a noogie._

"_Hey! Stop it!" Bardock shouted, pushing the boy to the ground and smashing the palm of his hand into his face._

_They tussled around a bit before falling flat on their backs and laughing jovially. After a little while they stood up. The taller of the two boys flashed an impish grin._

"_Toma," Bardock replied, drawing out the 'uh' sound. "What did you do?"_

_"Trust me, you're gonna love this!" Toma replied, his smile broadening – it was contagious._

_He quickly looked around his periphery and motioned Bardock to come closer. They huddled together and Toma reached into the top of his animal-hide shirt._

_He paused to emphasize the significance of the situation and said, "Prepare to be amazed. This is something you've never seen in your 13 years –"_

"_Toma," Bardock interjected. "Get on with it already!"_

_He pulled out an odd device that truth be told, Bardock had never seen before. However, just looking at it, he knew immediately where it had come from. He blinked at it rapidly with a stunned expression on his face._

"_Where'd you get that?!" he exclaimed._

_Toma reached out and smacked the palm of his hand over Bardock's mouth. He brought his opposite index finger up to his lips. "Shhhh! Someone will hear you, numb-nuts!"_

"_Mrmhmrhuh!" Bardock replied with a scowl, his words garbled by Toma's impeding hand._

_Toma freed Bardock and teasingly said, "Come again?"_

_Bardock crossed his arms, the scowl still fully apparent. "You don't wanna know what I just said!"_

_Toma rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I actually found it just lying around in the dirt here – well in the village."_

_Bardock raised an eyebrow at him. "You didn't let anyone see you pick it up, right?"_

_Toma waved his hand at his younger friend. "Please, it's _me_ we're talking about!"_

_Bardock sighed. "Precisely my point."_

"_Oh shut up! Nobody saw me!"_

_Bardock's eyes suddenly widened with a look of recognition. "Do you think they're spying on us?!"_

"_Psh! No!"_

"_Well, then why was it here?"_

"_Isn't it obvious? That rebel guy I keep hearing about mustuh brought it," Toma explained matter-of-factly. _

"_What rebel guy?"_

_It was Toma's turn to be shocked. "You haven't heard of him? Dad talks 'bout him all the time! There's this rebel guy that has been traveling through the colonies trying to create an uprising. He says we had this planet first and that the Tuffles have got to go. He thinks we should start a war and kill 'em!"_

"_Father says that's just a hoax," Bardock argued._

"_That's what I thought too, but," Toma held up the technology, "this is proof! Somebody infiltrated one of their cities and brought this back!"_

"_I guess that could explain it," Bardock agreed._

_Light glinted off of a small, thin square of green glass attached at a right angle to a metallic box with a cushiony material attached to one side._

_Bardock poked at the spongy material, a look of awe adorning his face. "What is it?"_

_Toma shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. Whatever it is, someone who's a member of that rebel group mustuh dropped it…"_

"_You idiot!" Bardock suddenly shouted, completely losing his filter. "That person who dropped it is gonna come looking for it!"_

"_Come looking for what?" a new, threatening voice suddenly spoke up._

_Bardock and Toma instantly spun around. Toma concealed the mysterious device behind his back none too conspicuously._

"_None of your business Maiz!" Bardock spat._

_The newcomer towered over Toma and Bardock. He was much older, no younger than 16. He chuckled to himself and combed his fingers through dark brown spikes of hair._

_He clenched his fists and said, "Oh yeah, well I'm making it my business, runt!"_

_Although Maiz was much larger, older, more muscular, and downright imposing, Bardock was not one to step down from a challenge._

"_You wanna fight?!" he retorted. "Come and get it!"_

_The next thing Bardock knew he was waking up at home. He looked around the small abode. Nobody was inside, but a fire was going so he knew that he wasn't alone._

_His whole body ached all over. One thing was for certain, he'd really been pummeled big time. He groggily walked up to the washbasin and splashed his bruised up and bloodied face with ice-cold water. He approached the only opening in the rocky abode, pulled the makeshift animal-skin tarp out of the way, and walked outside. He was about to take off to go and find Toma and figure out just what the hell had happened when the presence of another stopped him dead in his tracks._

"_Where do you think you're going, brat?" came the icy voice of his father._

_Bardock turned to face the man and shuddered. He knew by the look on his father's face that he was in for it. _

_His father just stood there and scowled at him for a moment before finally speaking up again, "The resident clown brought you. He'd best have left your idiot self where you were. You're a disgrace like your sister!"_

"_I was sticking up for my friend," Bardock explained._

"_Friend? We don't have _friends_! How many times do I have to tell you that before it gets through your thick skull?!" To emphasize his point, he knocked on Bardock's forehead, hard._

_Bardock's ears rang for a moment before the pain in his head died down to a dull throb._

"_You can't trust nobody! Your family is all you've got, and you're even screwing that up! You bring shame to us! One more screw-up and you won't have a family anymore! Don't ever let me catch you with that imbecile again or I'll kill you both!"_

"_Yes, sir," Bardock replied obediently, his eyes devoid of emotion._

_The words stung more than the subsequent beating._

* * *

A/N: Thank you for the feedback! Seriously though, I'm so glad some people like my story! :) Also, Maiz = Maize (corn), and Planet Hoptalis is just an anagram for Planet Hospital - I know, my imagination is so lame its sad...

_Tellemicus Sundance:_ Yeah, I think it's safe to say they're all gonna have issues, but that makes it more interesting, right?

_NatNicole:_ No he didn't heal her. You'll see.

_beautiful-note2895: _another BulmaxGoku shipper? Oh my gosh! Raditz will be a lot stronger in this story in more way than one. :)

_Masenko56:_ Sorry, my lips are sealed. You're just gonna have to wait an see! :)


	9. Honor Code

**If One Believed**

Chapter 8: Honor Code

Raditz gawked at his mother, dumbfounded. Last he'd seen her she'd been mortally wounded, and now she was miraculously healed. He'd been certain she was a goner, and now she was perfectly fine! Raditz grinned stupidly. "You're okay!" he exclaimed.

Catsia's eyebrow raised as her curiosity peaked. "Apparently. What happened?"

"I have no idea," Raditz replied earnestly.

"Where are we?"

Raditz laughed nervously. "I have no idea," he repeated.

Catsia exhaled as she stood up on her feet. "Aren't you the helpful one," she replied sarcastically. She ran her hand along her outer thigh and ended up with a palm full of mud. She grimaced. "I'm soaked…"

Raditz lightened up a bit – glad that he finally knew the answer to something. "That's because the natives had you lying in there." he explained, pointing to the small pond smack-dab in the center of the cavern. Raditz proudly puffed out his chest. "But don't worry; I scared them away as soon as I got here, and now they're cowering in that corner over there."

Catsia turned her attention away from her smug son and toward the little furry inhabitants. All of them were huddled up collectively in fear. She frowned slightly, her forehead creasing as puzzling thoughts filled her head. Without warning, she suddenly appeared in front of the creatures, and in response, one of them let out a high pitched squeal of terror. The others echoed with softer squeals and reticent nervous chittering.

Catsia raised her hands up with deliberate slowness and backed a foot away from the creatures. "I only wish to ask you a question," she said as soft as she could manage.

"Mom, what the heck are you doing?" Raditz asked.

"Shut up, Raditz," Catsia commanded. The sudden harshness of her voice jolted the natives. Catsia cursed under breath. She took another step back and asked, "Did you heal me?"

The tiny fuzzy aliens stared up at her with large, glistening black eyes. A solitary antenna atop their heads began to twitch.

"Can you understand me?" she asked.

The little creatures made clicking noises to each other as if they were having some form of conversation. One little fuzz-ball bravely came forward and skittered toward the small pool of water. It dipped a tiny golden flask slightly larger than Catsia's thumb into the water, and subsequently brought it to Catsia. It bowed slightly while offering up the gift in its shaky paws.

"Eh… thanks?" she said uncertainly, taking the flask. She noticed that the liquid inside was transparent and glowing red.

The creature's paw hovered above the flask momentarily, and then motioned to the hole in Catsia's shoulder strap. Catsia's frown deepened.

_Why?_ she thought. _Why did these things save _me_, a Saiyan? What could possibly be in it for them?!_

"Have you any idea who you're dealing with?" she asked.

The little creature bowed again. Something about the action aggravated her. It didn't make sense! Saiyans were notorious nearly throughout the entire galaxy for their viciousness. They had a reputation of slaughter and devastation following their heels wherever they went. Were these creatures ignorant or mad or something altogether different? She had her suspicions of what they truly were. It was something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was on the tip of her tongue. The thought was there, and at the same time it wasn't. Saiyans had no awareness of altruism.

_What could possibly possess them to do this?_

The cavernous room suddenly lit up with a wave of violet light, and the tiny creature scrambled backward, tripping, and falling to the rocky floor. It cowered on the ground, hiding its face in its paws, and peaking through at the scary monster standing behind Catsia. Catsia turned to seek out the disturbance. She spied Raditz with his right arm extended; a ball of crackling lavender ki was hovering atop the palm of his hand.

Catsia cocked her head at her son. "What… are you doing?" she muttered, not quite following his actions.

The energy quivered in Raditz's hand. He glowered at the little aliens. "Getting rid of these stupid gerbils, Mother," he simply replied.

…

_A memory surfaced in her mind. It was not long after her son's first mission._

_Three year old Raditz looked up at his mother with innocent eyes. "Anything that isn't Saiyan or a benefit to the Saiyan race is inherently worthless," he recited._

_At first Catisia's eyes widened in astonishment, they then narrowed as she speculated his words. "Who told you that?"_

"_The lady in my head."_

"_What lady?"_

_Raditz smiled cheerfully. "She's my friend. She talks to me when I'm lonely."_

…

Catsia's eyesight flickered from the frightened, queer little aliens to her son, and a thought suddenly occurred to her – a revelation really.

…

_Catsia and Bardock stood before an opened space pod in the east docking bay of Planet Vegeta. Inside of the pod were two fidgeting Saiyan toddlers, sandwiched together and very crabby. A third adult jogged up to the mates._

"_Hey guys!" he hollered out. He ducked down to be on the same level as the children. "Hey kiddos!" he exclaimed with a smile. "You didn't think you could escape without saying bye to your favorite uncle, did you?"_

_Raditz immediately burst into tears. "I-dohn-wanna-go!" he whined._

_Toma's good-natured smile dropped instantly into a speechless gaped mouth. "Um…" He looked to Catsia for some help and she shrugged her shoulders._

_Bardock rolled his eyes. "You have to," he replied tersely._

"_I-dohn-wanna-i-dohn-wanna-i-dohn-wanna!" Raditz shrieked in a high-pitched tone._

_Bardock and Toma flinched and reflexively covered their sensitive ears._

_Catsia stomped her foot on the ground and it let off a loud, metallic boom. "Stop it!" she commanded._

_Raditz promptly quit his whining and sniffled, rubbing away his watery boogers with the back of his arm._

_His sister crossed her arms and pouted petulantly. "You're such a baby!"_

_Raditz scowled and shoved his sister. "Am not!"_

_She shoved him back. "Are too!"_

"_Am not!"_

"_Are too!"_

"_Am _not_!"_

_His sister grabbed Raditz's forearm and socked him with his own fist. She giggled. "Stop hitting yourself!"_

"_Enough!" Catsia shouted. "Mya stop hitting your brother! Raditz stop blubbering like a coward. You are going on your first mission together, and that's final! If either of you do one more thing to piss me off I'm going to skin both your tails and make myself a pair of socks with 'em!"_

_The children wrapped their tails in the protective clutches of their arms and stared wide-eyed at their angry mother. "Sorry, Momma!" they cried in unison._

_Catsia sighed. "Never mind. It's time to go. Behave yourselves."_

"_Have each other's backs," Bardock added._

_Mya nodded her head. Raditz choked on a sob. Those were the last words exchanged by parent and child before the hatch closed shut, effectively separated them between a thick translucent layer of red quartz glass._

_The Saiyans weren't a people of much sentimentality, but Catsia would never forget the look on the faces of her children – the sheer terror – and thinking to herself what kind of mother sends out her babies into the foul struggle of reality before they can fly?_

_After they had departed, Catsia was the first to break the silence that followed. "So this is what the pact has brought us to…" she muttered._

"_What do you mean, sis?" Toma asked._

"_Sending out toddlers to battle," she replied bitterly._

_Bardock crossed his arms. "Don't underestimate a desperate Saiyan – whatever the age."_

"_Bardock, don't be a fool!" she argued. "Raditz isn't even potty-trained!"_

_Bardock shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "As if that matters – I doubt there are toilets on the backwater planet they've been sent to."_

_Toma chuckled and prodded Catsia in the side with his elbow. "He's got a point ya' know. Besides, be glad they're the age they are. I heard Celetta had to send out her newborn the other day."_

_Catsia raised her eyebrows in near-disbelief. "And that doesn't bother you in the slightest?"_

"_We're not called a warrior race for nothin', Catsia. Of course it doesn't bother me. If the kid's worth his salts he'll survive," Toma explained matter-of-factually._

_Catsia narrowed her eyes. "No we're not warriors anymore. We're slaves to the Planet Trade."_

_Toma laughed. "Always the paranoid one. Freeza's done none nothing but good for us. He's given us technology – interstellar travel – the likes of which we haven't had in ages. And what does he ask of us in return? He wants us to fight for him? We love fighting! It's a win-win situation. Why can't you see that?"_

_Bardock nodded his head in agreement. "It's like the King said. If we wanted out we could leave at any time. We have strength the likes of which makes the universe itself tremble. Just one word from our King and down goes the ice Lord. He's not playing us, we're playing _him_."_

"_Maybe I am just being paranoid," Catsia admitted with a sigh. "King Vegeta has never led us astray before. It's just… sometimes I get the feeling that Freeza's like some master puppeteer, feeding our King with bullshit propaganda – making him believe… oh never mind."_

_Bardock's expression suddenly became very severe. He glanced about the perimeter and let out a lengthy sigh when he realized they weren't being watched. "Don't let anyone hear you talking like that! You'll be tried for treason!" he hissed._

_Toma patted his sister on the back and grinned – trying to lighten up the mood. "Cheer up, Cat! Look on the bright side – our work is hardly any work at all because we're doing what we love, and Freeza's only making us stronger whether he intends it or not. Heck, he got us out of our caves."_

"_Whatever you say, Brother," she replied with a shrug. "Though I liked my cave," she added with a low, indistinct grumble._

…

Catsia's eyes flickered from the pathetic frightened alien to her son and back again. The look of terror in Raditz's eyes the day she sent him to the wolves burned in her memory like hot coals. The realization that the only difference between Raditz and the cowering little creature was that her son just happened to have more power ate away at her conscience.

"Stand down," she suddenly commanded.

Raditz shot his mother a puzzled look. "Why?"

"These aliens saved my life. I'm in debt to them – a life for a life. You may not slay them," she explained calmly.

"But Mom!"

"No but Moms! You heard me, you little heathen! Have some respect! You're in debt to these creatures too!" Catsia reprimanded. The stern look on her face wavered after a moment and she grinned. "After all, they saved me didn't they?"

"The code only applies to fellow Saiyans!" Raditz recited in case-point.

"Fat lot of good the code ever did for us," Catsia retorted. "I say they live."

"They could sell us out to Freeza!" Raditz argued.

Catsia laughed derisively. "What are they gonna do, chirp it out to him? I doubt their language is even in the database."

"They're alien," Raditz continued undaunted. He couldn't believe what his mom was saying.

"If it bothers you so much, then you're more than welcome to fight me for your cause, Raditz, but I'm not going to show you any mercy if you do," she replied icily.

Raditz gaped at her. "But I'm Saiyan! I – I'm your _son_! Where's your pride, Mother? Where's your honor?!"

Catsia scoffed. "You'd best forget everything you've ever learned about Saiyan pride and honor. Our people were nothing but wretched pawns in Freeza's intergalactic game of chess!"

Raditz stood there in shock and awe for a moment, his mouth hanging agape. After a little while, he shook his head as if to shake off his turbulent thoughts. "So then… what am I supposed to do?"

"Lower your arm," Catsia instructed.

* * *

_Planet Hoptalis:_

Bardock paced in a circle around his pod. All the while he tapped at his scouter impatiently. He grunted frustratedly when he didn't get what he wanted, namely an answer from Catsia. This was the third failed attempt at contacting her.

The healing facility on the planet had no record of his mate ever having been admitted. There was the possibility that she'd used an alias – in fact – she or more accurately, Raditz, would have been an idiot not to. However, if she had used an alias and received medical care, surely she would have been healed and discharged by now. She would have contacted Bardock. There had been no such contact.

Bardock glanced at one of the planet's suns peaking out over the horizon. Bardock squinted. He could scarcely detect two shadows in the center of it nearly engulfed by its blinding light. _Just as I thought._

A beep from his scouter distracted him from his musings for a moment. It was notifying him of an incoming call. He grinned.

"Hey Cat, took you long enough. I see you're not dead in a ditch somewhere," he said bluntly.

"You couldn't even dream of getting rid of me that easily," she retorted. "Where are you?"

"Planet Hoptalis. I think the real question is 'where are you?'"

"Not sure, I'll have to get back to you on that," she replied earnestly.

"Look, I don't have much time to talk. I didn't have a chance to remove the tracking from the pod I stole, and now it looks like I've got some of Freeza's goons on my tail," Bardock explained, all the while eyeballing the approaching soldiers. "Slight change of plans, just take Raditz with you and go to Earth. I'll catch up with you later."

The voice coming through the tiny speaker in the earpiece was suddenly very angry. "You have got to be kidding me! I am not playing babysitter while you run around and have all the fun! I refu – "

_*click*_

Bardock ended the conversation with the simple press of a button. "Annoying woman… never stops griping," he grumbled. He cleared his throat. "Now, where was I?"

As if on cue, his two visitors landed directly in front of him, only a matter of yards away.

"Oh right," Bardock said dryly. "_That_."

Bardock surveyed his opponents for a moment. One was a red humanoid creature – likely of Brench-seijin heritage – with long and shaggy white hair. The other was a towering, muscular alien with scaly blue skin and crimson eyes. They were both in the typical standard issue armor, and they both had a green scouter attached to their left ear.

The red one addressed him, but his words were a garbled jumble of nonsense. Bardock frowned, his eyebrows pinching together in unease. This feeling was all too familiar. Bardock suddenly felt his consciousness slipping away at the hands of yet another vision. _I must fight it! _He shut his eyes tightly and clenched his forehead in his hands. To say that suppressing the vision was painful would be an understatement. Bardock growled in protest. _No! No you won't! Not again! Not this time!_

Bardock struggled to lift one eyelid, and could see that his struggle was not in vain. He was still in his proper plane of reality.

The red alien had his head cocked with a puzzled expression on his face. He glanced to his companion. "Hey Burter… What's going on?"

The blue alien seemed just as dumbfounded. He shrugged his shoulders. "No clue."

Bardock's vision began to blur as the need to witness the vision clawed adamantly at his brain. He clenched his teeth and let out a furious hissing growl as the pain in his skull throbbed tenfold.

_No good… can't concentrate!_

With that final thought, Bardock gave in and the vision flooded his mind:

…

_His surroundings are familiar. It's apparent that he is on the same planet as previously visited in one of his most recent visions: the planet of many greens and browns. His son is standing in front of him again. He looks the same as before._

"_Kakarrot!" Bardock shouts. "Just what the hell is going on?!"_

_Kakarrot doesn't reply this time. It's like his other visions again. It is as if Bardock is completely invisible – nonexistent to the people and things around him._

_Bardock clenches his fists and lets out a frustrated scream. "Damn-it!" he shouts, "always the worst possible timing! I need this vision to end already! How can it be of any more importance if I'm dead because of it!? Is that what you wanted, Kanassan? Did you want me to die in a vision?! I thought you wanted me to witness my demise! What the hell is this then?! I'll tell you! It's bullshit! That's what it is!"_

_Bardock is snapped out of his tirade at the appearance of two familiar faces. He stares at them with his mouth agape._

"_It – it's you two!" he exclaims in utter shock. "B – but it can't be!"_

_If they're here in the future… then what does that mean for me?_

* * *

A/N: Next chapter we arrive on Earth! :) Mya = anagram for Yam (pronounce Me - uh) - another root vegetable, aren't I clever? ;)

As always thanks to those who gave me feedback!

_Tellemicus Sundance: _I totally just screwed Bardock with another ill-timed vision! Aren't I cruel? Something will be done about that eventually, I promise.

_Guest:_ I'm not much for power-levels, but I'll try my best. I can't promise how long I'll keep this up though.

_Power Levels:_

_Bardock:_ 11,000 - keep in mind he's still injured so at current condition it is not so high

_Catsia: _3,000 after zenkai

_Raditz: 55_

_Burter:_ ?

_Jeice:_ ?


End file.
